Ogden is one of several cities that are participating in the Utah State University’ latest Utah Wellbeing Project Survey.

Dr. Courtney Flint, USU professor in the Department of Environment and Society and director of the Utah Wellbeing Project, told the Standard-Examiner on Monday that the project has done surveys with partner municipalities from around the state every couple of years since 2018.

“For no charge to the cities, we can work with them to run surveys of residents to do a variety of things — assess how their well-being is, their perspective on local issues and we gather feedback that we return to the cities,” she said. “We also use the research  to support efforts all around the state related to so many aspects of well-being from mental health to land-use planning to environmental management and growth and development management.”

She said the survey has 35 communities participating as of Monday morning with 30 more set to join in April and the potential for additional communities to add their names to the list in the interim. Other area communities that are participating include South Ogden, West Haven, Clinton and Layton.

Barndon Garside, communications director for the Ogden City Council, told the Standard-Examiner on Monday that the city first participated in 2024.

“A lot of communities in the state have participated in the past,” he said. “The last time we did this, we had 780 surveys, which is a really good amount. We hope that we get a similar, if not better, response to see how things have changed, if at all.”

He said survey results are useful to the city.

“It helps us gauge where we’re at to see if there’s anything that needs to be addressed that the city can address,” he said. “Any time we can get more information about how we can serve the residents of Ogden and see how things are going, we want to take advantage of that. Utah State, I believe, received some funding for this project, so it’s not costing the taxpayer anything to conduct this survey, which is another bonus.”

Flint said the survey officially kicked off Sunday and that it will be collecting answers throughout the spring and early summer.

She said that results will be disseminated as reports to the individual communities late in the summer.

“Utah State University is the land-grant university in the state,” she said. “We have an obligation to pair up our capacities with the energies and needs of communities around the state. It’s really great just to work together to draw attention to this issue and give community residents — Utahans all over the state — a chance to have their voice heard on the things that matter to them. We are working to support planning efforts at the community level, we’re looking to provide data for other interested parties and we are doing research on the well-being of the individual community levels to see what changes over time, what’s pretty stable and where are the hotspots of concerns around the state.”

To participate in Ogden’s Utah Wellbeing Project survey, visit https://tinyurl.com/Ogden2026.

For more information on the Utah Wellbeing Project as a whole, visit https://www.usu.edu/utah-wellbeing-project/.

Flint noted that municipalities that haven’t already joined the survey can still participate by contacting her at courtney.flint@usu.edu.