Last year, Utahns volunteered for over 114 million hours; according to experts, this had a significant impact

Salt Lake City, Utah – The “volunteer state” moniker may need to be changed for Tennessee, as Utah is currently the state with the highest volunteer rate in the US.

New statistics on nationwide volunteer rates was released Tuesday by AmeriCorps and the U.S. Census Bureau. They discovered that between September 2022 and September 2023, almost 28% of Americans volunteered for a nonprofit.

Volunteering for the country has resumed after a sharp drop during the COVID-19 pandemic. Just 23% of people volunteered in 2021. Those levels were 30% in 2019.

According to the latest data, the Beehive State has the highest levels of formal and informal volunteerism. Formal volunteering, according to the groups, is volunteering with a nonprofit, whereas informal volunteering involves helping elderly neighbors with their meds or taking a friend’s child to school.

During that time, 46.6% of Utahns formally volunteered, according to Census data. Compared to 2021, when just 40.7% of the state gave back, that is an improvement.

In the official volunteer rating, Utah was at the top, followed by Vermont, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Kansas. In terms of official volunteering, the worst five states were Florida, Nevada, Alabama, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. With just 18.5% of the time, Rhode Island had the lowest score. Compared to 20.1% in 2021, that is lower.

Even more of the state’s time was devoted to unofficial volunteer labor. The percentage of Utahns who reported having volunteered informally rose from 61.6% in 2021 to 68.2%.

In 36 states, more than half of the population spent time helping others, with Utah having the highest rates of informal volunteering. The top 5 in this category were Delaware, Vermont, Colorado, and Montana. At the bottom of the list were New York, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, and Georgia.

The diligent volunteer effort is also making a significant difference. According to estimates from AmeriCorps and the Census Bureau, each hour of formal volunteerism by Utahns boosts the local economy by $33.46. This indicates that Utah’s volunteerism is worth over $3.8 billion in total.

The demographics of individuals most likely to volunteer, whether formally or informally, are also revealed by the data. With 34.1% reporting some hours spent helping, 16 to 17-year-olds nationwide are the most active volunteers. The second-highest percentage of respondents—32.8%—were between the ages of 45 and 54.

Additionally, the evidence indicates that women are more inclined to devote time to charitable endeavors. Compared to just 25.6% of males, 30.9% of women donated some time to a nonprofit in the previous year.