Information You Can Use
Volunteering in America: 2007 State Trends and Rankings in Civic Life
Volunteering in America: 2007 State Trends and Rankings in Civic Life is the second annual study by the Corporation for National and Community Service that gives a detailed breakdown of America’s volunteering demographics, habits, and patterns by state and region. The 2007 report also provides the agency’s first-ever ranking of levels of civic engagement by state through a new Civic Life Index. A full copy of the report can be obtained at http://www.nationalservice.org/about/volunteering/states.asp
In 2006, 61.2 million adults volunteered throughout the United States, representing 26.7 percent of the population. While this is a decline from the 65.4 million volunteers (28.8% of the population) in 2005, the national volunteer rate remains at historically high levels compared to past decades and close to the volunteer rate the year after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Highlights for Pennsylvania include:
- In 2006, 2.69 million Pennsylvania volunteers dedicated 350.2 million hours of service.
- Pennsylvania’s volunteer rate increased by 4.9 percentage points since 1974 and 7.7 percentage points since 1989.
- In the Northeast, Pennsylvania had the fifth-highest adult volunteer rate, college student volunteer rate, and Baby Boomer volunteer rate.
- Pennsylvania was one of 17 states in the nation in which providing professional services was one of the top four activities for volunteers.
- Participation with education or youthservice organizations almost doubled from a rate of 12.5% in 1989 to 23.9% in 2006.
- In addition to the 2.69 million Pennsylvania volunteers in 2006, almost 215,000 people participated informally by working with their neighbors to improve the community.
- Overall, 32.4% of people in Pennsylvania engaged in civic life by volunteering, working with their neighbors, or attending public meetings.
Today, Americans are making more time to improve their community through service. In fact, people of all ages are volunteering on college campuses, through religious communities, at schools, and in social service organizations in a wide range of volunteer activities. Many volunteers teach and mentor children, help older individuals live independently, and work with communities to recover from hurricanes and other disasters. By examining historical volunteer trends, it is clear that Americans are turning out in record numbers to volunteer. The growth in volunteering from 1974 to 2006 has primarily been driven by three age groups: young adults; mid-life adults; and older adults.
This report is a valuable tool to help states and organizations increase volunteering towards the national goal of 75 million volunteers by the year 2010. In conjunction with the report, the Corporation has created “Resources for Retention,” a free online toolkit with resources and effective practices for volunteer retention that is available at http://www.nationalservice.gov/resources.
For more information contact
Walt Whitmer
Extension Associate, Economic & Community Development, Penn State Cooperative Extension
Associate Director, Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development
6C Armsby Building
University Park, PA 16802
(814) 865-0468
(814) 865-3746 (fax)