The National Citizen Survey is the product of a joint collaboration between ICMA and The National Research Center. These surverys provide a window to citizen opinion regarding local government and community services. Questions focus on issues of community quality, environmental sustainability, community inclusiveness, community design, recreation and wellness, civic engagement, public safety and public trust. Of the 1200 surveys mailed to residents in the Town of Needham, 573 were completed and mailed back. The margin of error for questions answered in this survey is +/- 4.

The Town of Needham received high marks for quality of life (96% rated it "excellent" or "good"), quality of neighborhood (94%), ease of car travel (78%), as a good community to work in (75%) and scored well above national averages in all public safety benchmarks . It received low marks in areas such as availability of affordable quality housing (29%), variety of housing options (47%) and shopping opportunities (36%).