Posted on August 10, 2011

Volunteer Hours Held Steady, Generation X Stepped Up Commitment in 2010, Report Finds

Americans spent a total of 8.1 billion hours volunteering in 2010, the same as in 2009, even as the overall number of those volunteering fell slightly from 63.4 million to 62.8 million, a new report from the Corporation for National and Community Service finds.

Volunteering in America 2011 — a compilation of data related to volunteer trends and demographics in all fifty states and hundreds of cities — found that 20.1 million Generation X volunteers devoted 2.3 billion hours to service last year — a year-over-year increase of about 300,000 volunteers and 110 million hours. According to CNCS, the higher numbers underscore generational patterns inherent in the "volunteer lifecycle," in which volunteerism rates tend to be high during the teen years, drop significantly during early adulthood, recover as individuals pass through their the mid- to late twenties, and peak in middle age.

While the overall volunteer participation rate slipped from 26.8 percent in 2009 to 26.3 percent in 2010, the percentage of volunteers serving a hundred hours or more per year rose from 33.2 percent to 33.8 percent, while the median number of hours served increased from 50 to 52. In total, volunteers provided services valued at nearly $173 billion last year.

For the sixth consecutive year, Utah was the top state in terms of volunteer participation, with a rate of 44.5 percent, followed by Iowa (37.9 percent), Minnesota (37.5 percent), Nebraska (37.4 percent), and South Dakota (37.2 percent). Among large cities, the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area ranked first for the fifth year in a row, with a rate of 37.1 percent.

"Every day, volunteers of all ages are giving their time and talents to solve problems and make our country stronger," said Robert Velasco II, acting CEO of CNCS. "Whether tutoring at-risk students or providing job training to veterans or responding to natural disasters, ordinary Americans are doing extraordinary things to improve the long-term health and vitality of the nation."