Among employed persons, 29.1 percent volunteered during the year ending in September 2012. By comparison, 23.8 percent of unemployed persons and 22.4 percent of those not in the labor force volunteered. Among the employed, part-time workers were more likely than full-time workers to have participated in volunteer activities—33.4 percent compared with 28.1 percent.
By age, 35- to 44-year-olds were most likely to volunteer (31.6 percent). Volunteer rates were lowest among 20- to 24-year-olds (18.9 percent). For persons 45 years and over, the volunteer rate tapered off as age increased. Teens (16- to 19-year-olds) had a volunteer rate of 27.4 percent.
The volunteer rate of parents with children under age 18 (33.5 percent) remained higher than the rate for persons without children (23.8 percent). Women with children under age 18 volunteered at a higher rate (35.9 percent) than men with children under age 18 (30.5 percent).
Among the major race and ethnicity groups, whites continued to volunteer at a higher rate (27.8 percent) than did blacks (21.1 percent), Asians (19.6 percent), and Hispanics (15.2 percent). Of these groups, the volunteer rate for whites fell 0.4 percentage point in 2012, driven by a decline in the volunteer rate of white women. Among blacks, the rate edged up 0.8 percentage point.
These data were collected through a supplement to the September 2012 Current Population Survey. Persons whose ethnicity is identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race. For a variety of information on volunteering, see "Volunteering in the United States—2012," (PDF) (HTML) news release, USDL-13-0285.
United States Department of Labor
