Regional and rural communities

We are working together with regional communities to make regional NSW an even better place to live, work, play, and do business.

""

How are regional and rural communities experiencing government services in NSW?

We asked people from regional and rural communities in NSW about their experiences interacting with different government services, including how easy they found their interaction with the service, how satisfied they were with their service experience, and to what extent they trusted the service to be working in their best interests.

Here's what regional and rural communities told us

78%
of regional and rural communities find it easy to interact with NSW Government services.
76%
of regional and rural communities are satisfied with their experience with NSW Government services.
73%
of regional and rural communities trust NSW Government services are working in their best interests.

About NSW regional and rural communities

One-third of the state’s population have made their home in regional NSW. Regional communities are diverse, resourceful, and resilient. Regional NSW offers lifestyle and business opportunities found nowhere else and no two regions are the same.

Approximately 

2.8 million

people live in regional or rural NSW, representing one-third  of the state's population.1

78%

live in family households and 11% live by themselves.1

12%

of people living in regional or rural NSW were born overseas.1

The regional NSW economy contributed

8.3%

to Australia’s Gross Domestic Product in 2017-18.2

How well are we delivering on our Customer Commitments to regional and rural communities?

The NSW Customer Commitments are our promise to customers on what to expect when interacting with our services. These commitments help us to put customers at the heart of our services and everything we do.  

There are 6 Commitments that our services seek to deliver on for customers: easy to access, act with empathy, respect my time, explain what to expect, resolve the situation, and engage the community.

Here’s what regional and rural communities told us based on their experience

Image

""

81% of customers surveyed in regional NSW found government services easy to access.

Image

""

76% of customers surveyed in regional NSW agreed that services delivered on our commitment to act with empathy.

Image

""

75% of customers surveyed in regional NSW agreed that their time was respected throughout their service experience.

Image

""

72% of customers surveyed in regional NSW agreed that services explained what to expect.

Image

""

82% of customers surveyed in regional NSW agreed that their situation was resolved.

Image

""

52% of customers surveyed in regional NSW agreed that government is engaging customers to ask for feedback and how they want services to be delivered.

Case studies

Image

""

Harnessing climate smart technologies to inform farming decisions

The Climate Smart Horticulture Pilot is increasing resilience to climate change through digital agriculture technologies.

Image

""

Supporting growing regional communities with new road infrastructure

The Development Services Customer Service Uplift project is creating better roads and services to meet the needs of growing regional NSW populations.

Find out more about the report

Case studies

See examples of how we embed a customer focused approach to services, programs and initiatives.

Customers

Find out how our customers are experiencing our services. They include the people, communities and businesses of NSW.

Customer Commitments

Read about our promise to customers on what to expect when interacting with our services.

Key metrics

Find how State of the Customer reports on our goal to deliver easy, effective, and trustworthy services.

Services

See a range of services we deliver that cater to customers with different needs and circumstances.

Home

Return to the State of the Customer homepage. 

About the regional and rural communities data

'Regional NSW' is defined as all of NSW excluding Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong (based on LGA).

Sources:
1 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS): 2021 Census of Population and Housing. Persons: Regional NSW - New South Wales.
2 Why Regional NSW webpage, Invest Regional NSW website.

CXS Source: NSW Government Customer Experience Survey (CXS). About the survey methodology.

Fieldwork: January to June 2022.
Questions: Thinking about your experience with the government service…

  • How easy or difficult was it to do this?
  • How satisfied or dissatisfied were you with this experience?
  • To what extent do you trust the government service to be working in your best interests?
  • We would like your opinion on [CUSTOMER COMMITMENT]. Please indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with each of the statements below.

Base: Regional NSW (excluding Sydney, Newcastle, and Wollongong) residents who have interacted with government services in the last 12 months.
Sample sizes: Ease and Satisfaction (n=3633), Trust (n=3680), Customer Commitments (various n=2612 to 3680).
Definitions and notes:

  • Ease of service is calculated as the percentage of customers that selected ‘Very easy’ or ‘Somewhat easy’.
  • Satisfaction with service is calculated as the percentage of customers that selected ‘Very satisfied’ or ‘Somewhat satisfied’.
  • Trust in service is calculated as the percentage of customers that selected ‘Trust a great deal’ or ‘Somewhat trust’.
  • Responses to the Customer Commitment questions are calculated as the percentage of customers that selected ‘Strongly agree’ or ‘Somewhat agree’ and it excludes ‘Not applicable’ responses.
Top of page