Volunteerism
Percentage of the population (age 16 and over) who have volunteered through an organization in the past year.
Why did we include this measure?
Civic and nonprofit groups play an important role in American society and often depend on volunteers to carry out their work. Our willingness to volunteer is also a sign of our sense of shared purpose and interest in contributing to our communities.
How does the US rank globally?
- Specific Measure: (Same as above.)
(Source: Authors’ analysis of International Labor Organization data).
- Percentage of countries the US outperforms: 63% (out of 35 countries)
- International Rank Trend: Not available
National Trend Stable
What do the data show?
Volunteerism has held relatively steady over the past two decades. Our international ranking is just below Austria, Germany, and Ireland—and our volunteerism rate is half that of the top-ranked country (Norway). Unfortunately, there is no way to capture the US trend in the 1990‒2002 period or the trend in our international standing for any two years for a reasonable number of countries.
What might explain these patterns?
It is unclear why volunteerism increased so quickly in 2017, but the fact that this occurred over two consecutive years and remained there until COVID suggests that it is probably not a data issue. We do not view the brief decline and rebound around the COVID pandemic as reflecting meaningful instability because social distancing rules precluded many forms of in-person activity, including some volunteer work. One reason that volunteerism may be stable is that declines in volunteer work among middle-aged adults is being offset by the growing share of retirees and greater encouragement for high school and college students to volunteer.
For more information about data sources and treatments, download the Data Notes.