Agricultural Economics Department

 

Nebraska Rural Poll

Date of this Version

8-2024

Document Type

Report

Citation

Nebraska Rural Poll Research Report 24-1, August 2024 (released September 5, 2024)

Also titled: Perceptions of Well-being among Non-metropolitan Nebraskans

Funding for this project was provided by Nebraska Extension of the Institute for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Rural Prosperity Nebraska, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Agricultural Economics

Also available at http://ruralpoll.unl.edu

Abstract

This year, rural Nebraskans are more pessimistic about their current situation than they’ve been since this study began. The proportion believing they are worse off than they were five years ago was 33 percent, up from 27 percent last year and 21 percent in 2022. This is the highest level across all years of the study. This increase in pessimism was matched with a sharp decrease in optimism. This year, just over one-third (36%) of rural Nebraskans believe they are better off compared to five years ago, down from 45 percent last year.

This trend continued when looking to the future. Rural Nebraskans’ optimism about the future has declined in the past five years. This year, rural Nebraskans’ optimism about their future declined from last year. Just over one-third (34%) of rural Nebraskans believe they will be better off ten years from now. This is a decrease from 39 percent last year. The past five years have shown a steady decline from 52 percent in 2019 (the highest proportion across all years of this study). The proportion of respondents stating they will be worse off ten years from now was about the same as it was last year (26 percent this year and 27 percent last year).

The past five years have also seen an increase in feelings of powerlessness by rural Nebraskans and are at the highest level since the study began. The past five years have been a period of steady decline in the proportions who either strongly disagree or disagree that people are powerless to control their own lives from 54 percent to 42 percent (the lowest in the 29-year period). The proportion of rural Nebraskans that either strongly agree or agree with the statement has steadily increased from 24 percent in 2019 to 40 percent this year (the highest proportion in all years of the study).

Despite these trends, certain groups are more likely to be optimistic about their current situation as well as the future. Younger persons are more likely than older persons to believe they are better off compared to five years ago and will be better off ten years from now. Persons with higher household incomes and education levels are also most likely to be optimistic.

Even though younger persons are more likely to be optimistic, they are also most likely to agree that people are powerless to control their own lives. And, even though most rural Nebraskans describe their mental health or emotional well-being as good or excellent, the youngest persons were less likely to do so.

A different measure of mental health showed that a slight majority of rural Nebraskans say they hardly ever or never experience feelings of loneliness. Just over one-half responded that they hardly ever or never experience the following: feel isolated from others (56%), feel that they lack companionship (55%), and feel left out (51%).

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