This article will guide you on how to create a Citizen survey about Cost Of Living Concerns. With Specific, you can build such a survey in seconds—just generate your own and start collecting deep insights right away.
Steps to create a survey for citizens about cost of living concerns
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Tell what survey you want.
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No need to read further if you're in a rush. The AI survey generator builds surveys using deep expert knowledge, tapping into question design best practices. It doesn't just ask static questions: it will ask respondents smart follow-up questions in real time, gathering rich insights from each citizen. For more flexibility, check out the main AI survey generator to try any kind of semantic survey you need.
Why citizen surveys on cost of living concerns matter
Getting a clear read on how regular people feel about cost of living isn't a "nice to have"—it's essential. The top reasons for running these surveys are straightforward and compelling:
Policy impact: If you're not measuring public sentiment, policymakers are literally guessing—which can lead to wasted resources and poor alignment.
Economic insight: Cost pressures shift rapidly; regular surveys spot new issues before they become crises.
Missed opportunities: If you’re not running these, you’re missing out on uncovering what actually keeps citizens up at night and which fixes matter most.
For example, in Northern Ireland, 90% of consumers are concerned about the rising cost of basics like food and energy, while in the U.S., 9 in 10 Americans are worried about the current cost of living. If you're not paying attention to stats like these, you risk making choices in a vacuum, disconnected from the daily reality facing citizens. [1][3]
The importance of citizen recognition survey tools is hard to overstate: you get real, actionable feedback—fast. Benefits of gathering citizen feedback include sharper policymaking, more trust from the public, and a much deeper view of how your interventions are landing on the ground.
What makes a good survey on cost of living concerns?
Getting quality insights means structuring your survey the right way. Here’s what separates a top-tier cost of living concerns survey from a forgettable one:
Clear, unbiased questions: Avoid loaded language or jargon so citizens can answer honestly and quickly.
Conversational tone: People open up more when the survey feels like a real chat—not an interrogation or bureaucratic checklist.
Responsive logic: Great surveys ask timely follow-ups to clarify broad answers. This helps surface why citizens feel a certain way.
You’ll know your survey is working if both the quantity and quality of responses are high. You want a steady flow of responses, but you also want those replies to be in-depth and actionable.
Bad Practices | Good Practices |
|---|---|
Vague yes/no questions | Specific, actionable questions |
Complicated jargon | Plain, conversational language |
No follow-ups | AI-powered follow-up questions for clarity |
Question types and examples for citizen survey about cost of living concerns
Picking the right question format is as important as the topics. If you want more sample questions or tips on creating them, check out our deep dive: Best questions for citizen survey about cost of living concerns.
Open-ended questions help you explore the true sentiment behind the numbers. Use these when you need detail or want unexpected insights. For instance:
In your own words, how have recent changes in cost of living affected your daily life?
What’s the single biggest expense you’ve struggled with in the past six months?
Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect for comparing across large samples or revealing patterns in cost drivers. Use them when you need structured data but don’t want to overwhelm respondents with options.
Which area has seen the biggest increase in your household spending?
Rent or mortgage
Electricity or gas
Groceries or food
Transportation
NPS (Net Promoter Score) question lets you measure citizens' overall perception or likelihood to recommend a public policy or initiative. Perfect for benchmarking over time. You can even generate a custom NPS survey for citizens about cost of living concerns in seconds with Specific.
On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend your local government's efforts to address cost of living concerns to others?
Followup questions to uncover "the why" add a layer of depth. When you want to go beyond surface answers and find out what’s really driving concern, ask a followup. For example, after a respondent says “groceries have gotten too expensive,” follow up with:
Can you share an example of a recent purchase that felt unaffordable?
Which items do you notice have increased the most in price?
This helps you understand the "why" behind their answer, allowing you to design more effective interventions.
Want more tips on how to compose survey questions? Browse our article on best questions for citizen survey about cost of living concerns for more guidance.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey is more than just a form—it’s a chat-like experience that feels personal and interactive. Unlike traditional manual surveys that can feel cold or generic, conversational surveys use AI to engage respondents naturally.
Here’s a quick comparison:
Manual Survey Creation | AI Survey Generator |
|---|---|
Slow to set up and test | Survey ready in seconds—just describe what you need |
Static, no real-time adaptation | Dynamic, with smart follow-up questions |
Respondent fatigue, impersonal tone | Feels like a chat—higher engagement |
Manual analysis needed | Instant AI-powered analysis |
Why use AI for citizen surveys? The real advantage is speed, nuance, and response quality. An AI survey builder aligns language, tone, and responsiveness to match your target audience—pulling from the latest research and phrasing trends with zero extra effort. Want to learn how to create a survey from scratch, or see more survey building tips? Check out our guide on creating conversational surveys.
When it comes to conversational surveys, Specific is built for best-in-class user experience. We focus on making the feedback process enjoyable and effortless—both for the people creating surveys and, even more critically, for the citizens sharing their views. It’s this smooth flow that unlocks honest, thoughtful answers every time you run an AI survey example.
The power of follow-up questions
Don’t underestimate the role of follow-up questions in uncovering citizen experience. We wrote a full article about automatic AI follow-up questions and how it can totally transform your data collection.
When you only ask static questions, you risk missing key context. For example:
Citizen: "Food is too expensive now."
AI follow-up: "Which food items have increased most noticeably for you?"
If you stop at the first answer, your insight is limited and vague. But just one or two well-placed follow-ups make the real issues clear (maybe it’s actually fresh produce, not packaged snacks). That’s the power of automated, context-driven probing.
How many followups to ask? Generally, two or three follow-up questions are enough to get to the heart of the matter without overwhelming your respondents. You can configure this in Specific—set a maximum, or let the survey skip ahead once you have what you need. This means you always balance depth with respondent comfort.
This makes it a conversational survey — the conversation flows naturally, not like a rigid Q&A session. Respondents feel heard, not interrogated.
AI-powered analysis is easy: Even with loads of unstructured text, you can quickly analyze responses using AI. Take a look at our full article on how to analyze responses from a citizen survey about cost of living concerns—you’ll see how smooth this is. And if you’re curious about how AI survey response analysis works, here’s a more detailed overview: AI survey response analysis feature.
These AI-driven followup questions are a game changer. Try generating a survey and see how much richer your data gets when you go conversational.
See this cost of living concerns survey example now
See how easy, fast, and insightful it is to create a survey that actually engages, asks great follow-ups, and guides you from setup to analysis. Start conversations that give you the real story from citizens—generate your own survey and capture what matters today.