The City seeks community-wide feedback through the Palo Alto Community Survey on an annual basis. The Palo Alto Community Survey is a community feedback tool that helps the City Council and City staff understand community perspectives on current services and programs, as well as unmet needs and priorities. The survey is initially sent via mail to a random sample population of resident households and subsequently available to all residents online. The survey is one way among many through which we gain insights from residents throughout our community.
Polco/NRC, a leader in developing national benchmarking surveys, generates a report summarizing survey responses and includes Palo Alto in their benchmark comparisons. This report offers the City Council, City staff, and the public with an independent, impartial assessment of current and previous community perceptions to improve government efficiency and effectiveness, and support future decision-making.
August 13 - September 30, 2026
Mailed to Statistically Significant Residential Population: August 13
Open to Residents Citywide: September 15
2025 Palo Alto Community Survey(PDF, 3MB)
2024 Community Survey Results(PDF, 6MB)
FY 2023 Performance Report, Community Survey(PDF, 4MB)
Raw data available here(XLSX, 635KB) | Dec. 4, 2023 City Council Presentation(PDF, 4MB)
Raw data available here(XLSX, 336KB) | Open Participation data available here(XLSX, 138KB)*
* Open Participation results are not a validated representational sample of the community and are only included as additional information.
The Auditor's Office previously issued the annual Performance Report (formerly Service Efforts and Accomplishments) for the City of Palo Alto.
(650) 329-2392
CityMgr@PaloAlto.gov