1 million more Americans volunteered in 2008

[July 28, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- A million more Americans took time out of their schedules to volunteer in 2008 than they did the year before even though the economy was in a downturn, a study found.

A report by the government-run Corporation for National and Community Service showed that 61.8 million Americans volunteered in 2008, the largest number since 2005. The number of volunteers in 2007 was 60.8 million.

Americans spent around 8.1 billion hours of service last year. The top volunteer activity was fundraising, with collecting and distributing food coming in second, general labor third and tutoring/teaching fourth.

California had the largest number of volunteers per state, with about 7.1 million in 2008. The largest percentage of volunteers came from the nation's rural areas, 28.3 percent, while 27.6 percent came from suburbs and 22.1 percent from urban areas.

Researchers also found that while more whites spent time volunteering, blacks spent more time at volunteer activities.

The report said 28 percent of white Americans volunteered, while mixed-race Americans came in at 26.2 percent, Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders at 25.6, Native American/Alaskans at 19 percent and blacks at 18.8 percent.

When it came to median hours spent volunteering, blacks logged 59 hours, and whites and Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders 52 hours apiece. Native American/Alaskans and mixed-race Americans both came in at 50 hours.

The corporation, which administers volunteer programs including Senior Corps and AmeriCorps, prepared the report in partnership with the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau.

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On the Net:

Corporation for National and Community Service: http://www.nationalservice.org/

[Associated Press]

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