The second biennial survey of people's perceptions of the state of the New Zealand environment was undertaken in February 2002. The survey is based on the Pressure-State-Response model of state of the environment reporting. It tests perceptions of all the main resource areas, and in 2002 looked more specifically also at coastal management issues. Two thousand people, aged 18 and over, were randomly selected from the New Zealand electoral roll. An effective response rate of 45% was achieved. Data has been analysed descriptively and subject to statistical analyses in terms of comparing the 2002 survey response with that from 2000 and in terms of analyzing responses by several demographic variables.