Press Release
City of Aspen Releases 2026 Aspen Community Survey Results
Aspen, CO – The city of Aspen has released the results of the 2026 Aspen Community Survey, offering a comprehensive look at community priorities, city services, and local government performance.
Conducted using Polco's National Community Survey (NCS), the same standardized survey used in 2024, the results offer a reliable measure of how community sentiment has changed over time.
The survey was conducted between June 8 and Aug. 3, 2026, and received 569 responses. The survey was sent to 4,200 households, resulting in a 14% response rate, slightly above national averages. Of the 121 questions included in both survey years, 99 remained statistically stable, eight improved and 14 declined, reflecting overall consistency in community sentiment.
One of the most notable findings was the increase in residents' confidence in city government. Since 2024, ratings have improved in areas including fairness, communication, honesty, transparency, and confidence that the city acts in the community's best interest. These gains suggest progress in building trust and strengthening the relationship between local government and the community it serves.
The survey also allows Aspen to compare its performance with communities across the country and within Colorado. Aspen outperformed both benchmark groups in many key areas, reinforcing the city's strengths while also identifying opportunities for continued improvement.
The NCS evaluates 10 facets of livability through measures of quality and importance. Comparing these ratings helps identify community priorities and opportunities for improvement. Aspen residents placed greater importance on mobility and lower importance on safety than respondents in comparable communities, reflecting strong confidence in public safety and continued focus on transportation and connectivity.
Key findings:
Safety remains one of Aspen's strongest assets, with 94% of residents rating it as excellent or good. Respondents reported high confidence in their overall sense of safety, emergency response, police services, and crime prevention efforts.
Aspen's natural environment, with 94% of residents rating it as excellent or good and 85% rating it as important. Residents highlighted the quality of parks, trails and paths, cleanliness, and recreational opportunities.
Education, arts and culture remain defining features of the community, with 87% of residents rating them as excellent or good. Residents expressed strong support for arts and cultural offerings, volunteer opportunities, and community engagement. The category also received a 67% importance rating, reflecting the value residents place on these community assets.
Aspen earned the highest national benchmark rating for the availability of trails and paths, with 92% of residents rating them as excellent or good. The city also ranked among the top five communities nationwide in several measures, including civic participation, public transportation, walkability, bicycle accessibility, personal safety, volunteerism, and opportunities for education, culture, and the arts.
Longstanding community challenges remain evident in the 2026 results. Affordable housing, mobility, and emergency preparedness emerged as the community's highest priorities for additional city resources.
Residents continue to identify housing affordability, cost of living, and access to affordable goods and services as key concerns, along with commercial diversity, growth and development, and preserving Aspen's historic character.
The survey highlights the importance residents place on mobility throughout the community. While walking, bicycling, and public transit received strong ratings, traffic congestion and parking remain areas of improvement. Results also point to an opportunity to strengthen community confidence in wildfire preparedness and long-term resilience to natural hazards.
These findings closely align with the city of Aspen strategic plan and reinforce ongoing work in housing, childcare, mobility, wildfire preparedness and community vitality. The results confirm that many of the city's current initiatives are focused on the issues residents identified as most important to Aspen's future.
Beginning Sept. 28, residents can track progress on the city's highest-priority initiatives through the online strategic plan dashboard. The full survey results and supporting data are available at aspen.gov.
For more information, please contact: John Barker, strategy and innovation director
Phone: 970.920.5716
Email: [email protected]
Mariela Hale, digital communications coordinator Phone: 970.309.9959
Email: [email protected]