SurveyMonkey Reveals New Business, Cultural, and Social Trends in Second Annual State of Surveys Report

Annual study leverages insights from 17 million active users asking 20 million questions on the SurveyMonkey platform every day

SurveyMonkey, a global leader in online surveys and forms, announced the findings of its second annual State of Surveys report. Analyzing 11 years’ worth of anonymized and aggregated SurveyMonkey data for trends and anomalies, researchers identified the evolving ways in which people ask and answer questions in the modern era. From this analysis, a handful of themes emerged to define the current state of surveys: the rise of AI, gender inclusivity around the world, our increasingly mobile world, employee engagement, and survey best practices.

“The knowledge our customers seek is a fascinating reflection of how the world is evolving”

Key themes include:

People are curious about AI

After the introduction of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, terms like “AI,” “artificial intelligence,” “ChatGPT,” and “generative AI” all saw increased use in surveys in 2023.

• Mentions of these AI-related terms grew 4x, appearing in just 0.5% of surveys deployed on the SurveyMonkey platform in 2022 to 3% by September 2023, indicating a growing use of consumer-facing language.
• Specifically, the term “AI” was used 10x more than in previous years, highlighting the explosion of general awareness around the technology.

Gender-inclusive surveys are growing worldwide

As gender inclusivity has expanded, the number of gender answer options used in surveys around the world has grown as well, with a handful of countries setting the pace for the rest of the world.

• Within the U.K. and Canada in 2023, 8 out of 10 of the surveys sent included more than two gender answer options. In 2012, this number was closer to 2 out of 10.
• Canada (84%), the U.K. (82%), and Australia (80%) led the way with the highest percentage nonbinary gender-inclusive answers in surveys in 2023.

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More people are taking surveys on mobile devices, and employee and customer feedback remain in demand

It’s clear people want to fill out surveys and forms on their phones, increasingly favoring a mobile-first experience.

• Mobile survey-taking around the world has grown from 52% in 2020 to 57.2% in 2023.
• In the U.S., people are now as likely to respond to a survey on mobile as they are on desktop. At the end of 2020, 16% more people took surveys on desktop than mobile. By the end of 2023, that gap had shrunk to 0.6%.

With connection top of mind, businesses of all sizes continue to prioritize collecting customer feedback and employee engagement (particularly with remote workers).

• The most-used survey templates for CX, HR, and marketing professionals in 2023 featured customer satisfaction, employee engagement, meeting feedback, Net Promoter Score (NPS®), and name testing.
• Event registration and RSVP forms top the list of the most used forms, especially as in-person events increase.

Survey best practices emerge

• Less is more! Surveys are getting shorter on average, with the number of questions per survey trending down by around 15% over the past six years—from 13.2 questions in 2017 to 11 questions in 2023.
• Survey response submissions are higher during the week—with four in five survey submissions happening Monday through Friday. Survey completion rates are highest on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and lowest on Sunday and Monday.
• Surveys taken on mobile devices are slightly more likely to be submitted on weekends compared to those taken on non-mobile devices (24% vs. 20%).
• Template usage doubled in 2023. Surveys created from a template deliver 4 percentage points higher completion rates compared to surveys created from scratch.
• Surveys that used the SurveyMonkey question bank, a library of thousands of commonly asked questions written by survey methodologists, had a 9 percentage points increase in completion rates compared to surveys that did not use this resource.

“The knowledge our customers seek is a fascinating reflection of how the world is evolving,” said Lara Belonogoff, senior director of brand management at SurveyMonkey. “The true value lies in how survey creators put the insights gleaned from the data they collect into action for good: embracing gender inclusion, empowering businesses with AI, and engaging one another in ways that drive human connection. These are the tangible outcomes of a well-designed, expertly executed survey that drive meaningful decisions, raise the bar for human experiences, and inspire ongoing curiosity.”

Methodology: This report analyzed millions of surveys deployed globally on the SurveyMonkey platform from 2010 through September 2023. Gender data was calculated by querying the total number of deployed surveys containing a gender question that contained specific criteria by the total number of surveys containing a gender question, between January 2012 and October 2023. Mobile data was calculated by comparing the percentage of survey responses submitted on the SurveyMonkey platform via mobile device or desktop/PC between November 2020 to September 2023. U.S. template ranking data was created based on the number of deployments, between January 2023 to September 2023. Template usage was calculated by querying the percentage of surveys deployed based on a template, between January 2010 and October 2023. Day of the week stats were calculated by comparing the percentage of survey responses submitted by each day of the week, with additional cuts by device type, between October 2021 and September 2023. Completion rates were calculated by the total number of surveys completed by the total number of surveys started on the given day of week. AI data was calculated by querying the number of surveys deployed in the U.S. with question titles or answer options that contained AI-related keywords, between January 2017 and September 2023. More specific methodology information is available in the report.

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