An estimated 54.2% of Americans helped or exchanged favors with neighbors such as house sitting, running errands, or lending tools between September 2022 and 2023 compared to 51.7% in 2019.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
November 19, 2024
Written by: Laura Hanson Schlachter and Tim Marshall
Over 75.7 million or 28.3% of the U.S. population age 16 and up formally volunteered through an organization between September 2022 and September 2023, approaching a return to pre-pandemic levels of volunteerism, according to joint research by the U.S. Census Bureau and AmeriCorps.
National rates of several other types of civic engagement similarly bounced back during that period, even surpassing pre-pandemic rates in some cases — a sign of renewed involvement in many aspects of civic life.
Although more Americans formally volunteered, the number of hours served per person has continued to decline.
Every two years, the Census Bureau partners with AmeriCorps to conduct a comprehensive survey of civic engagement across the United States and over time.
New data released today shows that formal volunteering is rebounding and informal helping is climbing.
Formal volunteering is helping others through organizations like food banks and other non-profits. Informal helping includes activities like mowing a neighbor’s lawn or bringing them groceries.
According to AmeriCorps’ analysis of the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey Civic Engagement and Volunteering Supplement (CEV) data collected in September 2023, formal volunteers served an estimated 4.99 billion hours and contributed over $167.2 billion in economic value between September 2022 and 2023.
As part of our annual serve-a-thon, our students and staff created heartfelt cards and thoughtful gifts for our incredible local heroes. Today, we had the privilege of welcoming Station Three to receive these tokens of appreciation. 
We are so honored to support the brave firefighters and law enforcement officers who serve and protect Las Cruces every day. Thank you for your dedication and courage—you are truly our community’s heroes!
(Courtesy Mesilla Valley Christian School via Facebook)And for the first time, the survey is tracking virtual volunteering, which gained popularity during the pandemic. It shows that 18% of formal volunteers served completely or partially online.
An estimated 54.2% of Americans helped or exchanged favors with neighbors such as house sitting, running errands, or lending tools between September 2022 and 2023 compared to 51.7% in 2019.
Taking the Pulse of Our Nation’s Civic Health
The Census Bureau has partnered with AmeriCorps to conduct the Current Population Survey Civic Engagement and Volunteering Supplement (CEV) biennially since 2017, with related supplements going back to 2002.
(Source: City of Las Cruces via Facebook)This collaboration has produced the nation’s most robust data about civic engagement, the constellation of activities individuals engage in to make a difference in their communities and promote the common good.
A growing body of work leverages the CEV to examine trends in civic engagement across the country and over time, provides insights into what drives civic health, and underscores the relationship between civic engagement and community well-being.
In September 2023, approximately 47,000 Americans age 16 and up answered CEV questionsabout their engagement with organizations, neighbors, politics, economic institutions, friends, family, and social issues.
The latest questionnaire also includes attitudinal measures of civic work introduced in 2021 and a first-of-its-kind measure of virtual volunteering launched in 2023, shedding light on the breadth and depth of contemporary volunteering and civic life in America.
Formal Volunteering is Rebounding
In many communities across the country, formal volunteering rates are rebounding from historic lows recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The estimated 28.3% of Americans who reported volunteering through an organization in the previous year in the latest survey is up from 23.2% in 2021.
The 2023 national volunteering rate remains 1.7 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels but the 5.1 point jump over two years represents a growth rate of 22.1% — the largest expansion of formal volunteering since the Census Bureau and AmeriCorps began tracking it in 2002.
Although less pronounced, there were also rebounds in national rates of organizational membership, attending public meetings, and joining with neighbors to improve their community. Along with formal volunteering, these three measures of civic engagement experienced the largest relative declines of any in the CEV at the height of the pandemic.
Who is Driving the Increase in Volunteerism?
Nationally, the largest relative gains in formal volunteering between 2021 and 2023 were among:
- Millennials (ages 27 to 42).
- People who identified as Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or Hispanic.
- Those with less than a high school education.
- People with family incomes of less than $25,000.
Rebounds in the formal volunteering rate were not equally distributed across states and the largest 12 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs).
In 14 states and five of the largest 12 MSAs, rates of formal volunteering in the latest CEV data matched or exceeded 2019 levels.
In contrast, 2023 formal volunteering rates remained more than 5 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels in 11 states and the District of Columbia metropolitan area.
Although the share of Americans who formally volunteered through an organization rebounded since the pandemic officially ended, the latest data show ongoing declines in the amount of time each volunteer served.
Nationally, average hours served per volunteer in the previous year dropped from 96.5 hours when the CEV began in 2017 to 70 hours in 2023. Similarly, half of formal volunteers served 40 hours in 2017 compared to 24 hours in the latest data. These trends are consistent with other evidence suggesting recent growth in episodic volunteering.
Virtual Volunteering
Another phenomenon attracting attention in the civic engagement world is virtual volunteering, or volunteer activities that are performed through an organization online.
Many organizations offered virtual or hybrid (a mix of in-person and online) volunteering opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic when social distancing policies and other public health measures discouraged face-to-face interaction. Yet relatively little is known about the prevalence of virtual volunteering and characteristics of virtual volunteers across the United States and over time.
In 2023, the CEV introduced the first measure of virtual volunteering to be administered in a Census Bureau population survey. Developed in collaboration with experts at the University of Maine, the new question asks the following of respondents:
Data released today show that almost 1 out of 5 formal volunteers served either partially or completely online. While the majority of formal volunteers continued to serve in-person, over 13.4 million formal volunteers engaged in service that included at least some online activities.
A research brief published today summarizes insights from this new virtual volunteering measure. Highlights include:
- On average, virtual and hybrid volunteers reported engaging in more hours of service per year (95 hours) than those who volunteered solely in-person (64 hours).
- Six in 10 virtual and hybrid volunteers were under the age of 55.
- Ten percent of virtual and hybrid volunteers reported having a disability.
Informal Helping on the Rise
The national informal helping rate has been stable in previous waves of the CEV, with about half of Americans consistently reporting they helped out neighbors with various tasks between 2017 and 2021.
Since then, there has been a statistically significant increase of 3.4 percentage points in the national informal helping rate.
An estimated 137.5 million people — or 54.2% of Americans — helped their neighbors informally between September 2022 and 2023. About 1 in 10 engaged in informal helping a few times a week or more during this period.
Overall, data released today suggests that Americans continue to help each other both formally and informally, online or in person, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Future waves of the CEV will allow policymakers, practitioners, and the public to see whether the renewed engagement in U.S. volunteering and civic life evident in 2023 is momentary or an ongoing trend.
About the Authors…
Laura Hanson Schlachter is a survey statistician in the AmeriCorps Office of Research and Evaluation.
Tim Marshall is a survey statistician in the Census Bureau’s Associate Directorate Demographic Programs Division.
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