Survey of Rural Decision Makers 2025

The seventh biennial Survey of Rural Decision Makers was conducted in winter 2025. Each year, new questions are added to reflect pressing knowledge gaps for industry, policy makers, and scientists. In 2025, new and expanded topic areas included winter grazing practices, forestry risk, biosecurity, volatility in input and output prices, life satisfaction, disaster preparedness, trustworthiness of advice, and the regulatory environment.

These survey data:

Provide information that complements rather than repeating other surveys
Incorporate emerging topics of interest
Enable the delivery of a wide range of analyses and statistical information to support national, regional, and sector policy development and evaluation
Support research and insight into decision making among farmers, foresters, growers, and lifestyle block owners.

Summary results for 2025 are provided below.

Survey results

Citation

Stahlmann-Brown P 2025. Survey of Rural Decision Makers 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7931/ty8h-fb90

Demographics

Age of respondents, by operation type Image — Age of respondents, by operation type

Generations farming in New Zealand, by operation type Image — Generations farming in New Zealand, by operation type

Highest education, by industry Image — Highest education, by industry

Post-secondary training, by industry Image — Post-secondary training, by industry

Current land use and land use change

Commercial and lifestyle block respondents, by region Image — Commercial and lifestyle block respondents, by region

Primary industry of respondents Image — Primary industry of respondents

Current land use is new within the last 10 years Image — Current land use is new within the last 10 years

Intentions to stop managing or downsize over the next 10 years, by age of respondent Image — Intentions to stop managing or downsize over the next 10 years, by age of respondent

Managerial focus

Past and future focus on managerial outcomes Image — Past and future focus on managerial outcomes

Catchment groups

Climate change, extreme weather events, and seasonal weather patterns

Beliefs about the exisitence and causes of climate change Image — Beliefs about the exisitence and causes of climate change

Anticipated impacts of climate change, by survey year Image — Anticipated impacts of climate change, by survey year

Perceived resilience of property Image — Perceived resilience of property

Expected change to seasonal weather patterns over the next 25 years Image — Expected change to seasonal weather patterns over the next 25 years

Technologies

Factors that would influence adoption og new technologies Image — Factors that would influence adoption og new technologies

Perceiptions of potential benefits of gene technology Image — Perceiptions of potential benefits of gene technology

Perceiptions of potential risks of gene technology Image — Perceiptions of potential risks of gene technology

Advice

Values

Agreement that 'My management practices are similar to those of other operators', by industry Image — Agreement that 'My management practices are similar to those of other operators', by industry

Agreement that 'I prefer leaving experimenting with new ideas to someone else', by industry Image — Agreement that 'I prefer leaving experimenting with new ideas to someone else', by industry

Agreement that 'I am generally one of the first in my area to try something new', by industry Image — Agreement that 'I am generally one of the first in my area to try something new', by industry

Risk tolerance, by industry Image — Risk tolerance, by industry

Finance

Profitability over the previous 2 years, by industry Image — Profitability over the previous 2 years, by industry

Regulatory pressure

Perceptions of regulations facing your property, by survey year Image — Perceptions of regulations facing your property, by survey year

Types of regulations that cause the most concern within the rural community, by survey year Image — Types of regulations that cause the most concern within the rural community, by survey year

Wellbeing

Perceptions of curent an future life satisfaction Image — Perceptions of curent an future life satisfaction

About the survey

Participation

The 2025 wave of survey was completed by 2,794 respondents from across New Zealand. Some 1,914 of these respondents are commercial farmers, foresters, or growers, and 880 respondents are lifestyle block owners.

Donations

To acknowledge the time and expertise shared with us, we made nearly $42,000 in donations to charities selected by respondents. We are pleased to announce the rural sector’s support of the following charitable causes:

Rural Support Trust ($20,190)
Farmers Adverse Events Trust ($7,200)
Rural Women New Zealand ($6,780)
NZ Young Farmers ($5,240)
Young Grower of the Year ($1,920)

Prize winners

We gratefully acknowledge everyone who participated in the 2025 Survey of Rural Decision Makers! Congratulations to the following respondents, each of whom won a $500 supermarket voucher:

Pip F (Amberly) – $500
Bruce A (Wainuiomata) – $500
Peter M (Pokeno) – $500
Pauline S (Rotorua) – $500
David H (Amberly) – $500
Pauline G (Tokoroa) – $500
Gerald K (Te Awamutu) – $500
Barry M (Hunua) – $500
Wade C (Auckland) – $500

Key science contact

Pike Stahlmann-Brown

Principal Researcher - Economics

CC GM

Contact