January 23, 2003 | Read Time: 2 minutes
About one in four Americans age 16 and older volunteer, according to a new report from the U.S. government.
Those who volunteer spend a median of 52 hours per year on volunteer activities, meaning that about half of those who reported their volunteer hours spent more time than that on volunteering and half spent less.
The figures are based on an analysis of Current Population Survey data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The September 2002 version of the monthly survey, which polls 60,000 U.S. households on employment-related information, included questions about volunteering habits.
About 59 million Americans reported volunteering. The survey excluded those in the military, prisons, and mental institutions, and other people unlikely to be in the labor force.
About 34 percent of volunteers spent at least 100 hours per year on volunteer activities; 28.2 percent spent 100 to 499 hours per year; and 21.5 percent spent 1 to 14 hours. Nearly 6 percent reported volunteering 500 or more hours a year.
Women were more likely to volunteer than men, with 31.1 percent of women performing some kind of volunteer work, compared with 23.8 percent of men. That finding remained consistent when comparing men and women by age group, education level, and other major demographic characteristics, the study found.
Among people 25 and older, 43.6 percent of college graduates volunteered, a rate about twice that of high-school graduates and more than four times that of high-school dropouts.
Volunteer rates were higher among parents with children under 18 (36.5 percent) than those without children under 18 (23.7 percent).
Across different age groups, people older than 65 spent the most time volunteering (a median of 96 hours a year), while those age 25 to 34 spent the least time volunteering (34 hours annually).
Most people who volunteer assisted one (69.1 percent) or two (19.3 percent) organizations.
When asked what kinds of groups they spent the most time working for during the year, about a third of volunteers (33.9 percent) said they assisted religious groups, while 27.2 percent aided educational or youth-related groups. About 12 percent spent most of their volunteer time at “social or community-service” organizations, and 8.6 percent listed hospitals or health organizations.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics report can be downloaded for free in PDF format at http://www.bls.gov/cps/home.htm, under “Economic News Releases, Other.”
Copies of “Volunteering in the United States” are also available free from the Division of Information Services, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2 Massachusetts Avenue, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20212; (202) 691-5200; blsdata_staff@bls.gov.
