As part of a statewide effort to contribute necessary information for the improvement of planning, administration, and delivery of continuing education services, the central region studies were an attempt to discover more about adult learning interests, the needs for continuing education services, and the present delivery system in an 11-county region of central New York. Three separate research efforts were conducted: (1) A demographic profile and analysis of the 11-county region including description of the population of each county with regard to age, sex, income, level of education, occupation, and labor force status; (2) a survey of adults in the region about their continuing education needs and interests (half-hour interviews by trained volunteers with 1,502 randomly selected adults from 64 communities--farm workers, service workers, blue collar workers, white collar workers, unemployed, and homemakers); and (3) a survey of providers of educational services in the region (questionnaire surveys of four categories of providers: degree granting 2- and 4-year colleges and universities; public schools, vocational, private, and proprietary institutions; social, cultural, government, religious, and professional organizations and agencies; and employers. It was found that a large majority of adults in the region wish to continue their education beyond the years of formal schooling, and many institutions, organizations, and agencies are attempting to provide appropriate continuing education services for them. In general, findings showed that the activities offered by the providers of learning opportunities are in the same learning areas cited as preferences by adults. To provide data to improve services and increase adult participation, specific findings from the study are presented in the report under the following categories: Adult interests and participation, learning opportunities and adult needs, recommendations for a more responsive system of continuing education, and toward a regional continuing education information management system. (JT)