By analyzing millions of surveys taken on SurveyMonkey over the course of a decade, researchers uncovered some of the societal trends that drove massive change in how we live and work, and what we stand for

Momentive, the maker of SurveyMonkey and GetFeedback, announced the findings of its inaugural State of Surveys report. Through the lens of surveys taken on SurveyMonkey from as far back as 2012 through 2022, Momentive identified the evolving ways in which people asked and answered questions. From this analysis, three themes emerged to define the current state of surveys: the growing inclusion of non-binary gender options, the rise of mobile survey-taking, and the rise and and fall of hot topics from recent years including DEI, COVID-19, and remote work.

In the U.S., gender inclusivity is growing

• As awareness of gender diversity continues to rise, gender options in surveys have significantly changed in the past decade.
• The percent of surveys with gender questions that include more than two gender options has quadrupled from 16.4% to 64.0% in the past decade.
• The specificity of labels has changed, too: “other” was the most common non-binary option until 2021, when “non-binary” took the lead. Now, 1 in 5 (21.1%) surveys that ask about gender include “non-binary” as an answer option, compared with 13.2% that use “other.”

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Fleeting trends: COVID-19 and remote work rise and fall in U.S. surveys

• COVID-19 and coronavirus mentions skyrocketed at the onset of the pandemic, reaching nearly 1 in 4 (22.9%) of all U.S. surveys at its peak in May 2020.
• Interest in COVID-19 has continued to decline since that peak and is now mentioned in just 2% of surveys at the end of 2022.
• With city-wide shutdowns and in-person restrictions rolling out in early 2020, remote work mentions saw a sharp rise, getting mentioned in 10% of all surveys in May 2020.
• However, as COVID-19 restrictions began to lift, interest in remote work has now declined to nearly pre-pandemic levels (mentioned in 0.4% of surveys in January 2019 and 0.6% of surveys in November 2022).

In U.S. surveys, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) proves to be more than a fad

• Mentions of DEI in surveys saw an increase in June 2020, after the murder of George Floyd (1.8% in May 2020 to 3% in June 2020).
• From June 2020 to November 2022, DEI is consistently mentioned in nearly 4% of all U.S. surveys on SurveyMonkey and shows no signs of waning.

The global march toward mobile

• With smartphones becoming a global standard of Internet accessibility, mobile survey-taking continues to prove popular among survey respondents.
• Globally, the percentage of surveys taken on mobile in Q4 2022 (56.6%) already far exceed those taken on non-mobile devices (40.2%), a trend that sees no signs of slowing down.
• The U.S. is an outlier, lagging far behind all other countries in mobile survey-taking in Q4 2022 (43.7% in the U.S. versus 64.0% rest of world).

“The questions people choose to ask can tell us so much more than you might expect,” said Laura Wronski, director of research at Momentive. “Our customers turn to surveys to answer tough questions about everything from customer experience to employee engagement to brand sentiment. In doing so, they reveal how our collective language, priorities, and expectations are continuously evolving. This report is our way of sharing the unique insights that piqued our curiosity through the years, with the hope that it inspires you to come up with new questions to gain deep insights.”

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