Volunteerism Statistics in America (2026)
Latest data reveals 28.3% of Americans—75.7M people—formally volunteered in 2023. Virtual roles are surging, corporate programs expanding, and Gen X leads all generations.
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Volunteerism Statistics in America (2026)
Data Period: September 2022–September 2023 (most recent AmeriCorps/Census Bureau Civic Engagement and Volunteering Supplement)
Report Updated: June 2026
Key Takeaways
The Big Picture: A Remarkable Rebound
Over 75.7 million Americans—or 28.3% of the U.S. population age 16 and up—formally volunteered through an organization between September 2022 and September 2023, according to the latest AmeriCorps and U.S. Census Bureau research. This represents one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the history of American volunteerism tracking.
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. After the formal volunteering rate dropped by seven percentage points during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (the largest decrease since AmeriCorps and the U.S. Census Bureau began tracking civic engagement trends more than two decades ago), fewer than 61 million Americans formally volunteered through an organization in 2021.
Participation rebounded sharply, especially among Millennials, lower-income households, and communities historically underrepresented in formal volunteering.
Economic Impact: $167.2 Billion in Value
💰 Total Economic Value
$167.2 Billion
from an estimated 4.99 billion hours with an economic value of $167.2 billion
The economic contribution of American volunteers has grown substantially. Independent Sector, with the Do Good Institute at the University of Maryland, announced on April 21, 2026 that the estimate for the value of a volunteer hour was $36.14 in 2025—a 3.9% increase from 2024. This figure is calculated as a wage replacement rate based on the average hourly earnings of all production and non-supervisory workers on private non-farm payrolls, as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with Independent Sector increasing this figure by 15.7% to account for fringe benefits.
At this rate, Americans gave 5 billion hours of formal volunteering service in 2023, an average of 66 hours per person (or 8.25 business days).
State-by-State Variation: State-by-state, the value of a volunteer hour ranges from $17.32 in Puerto Rico to $52.06 in Washington, D.C. Use your state figure when reporting impact, not the national one.
Informal Helping Surpasses Pre-Pandemic Levels
Beyond formal organizational volunteering, an estimated 137.5 million people—or 54.2% of Americans—helped their neighbors informally between September 2022 and 2023. There has been a statistically significant increase of 3.4 percentage points in the national informal helping rate since previous data waves.
Between September 2022 and September 2023, 54.2% of Americans provided informal help, such as errands or favors to neighbors. This rose from 51.7% in 2019, meaning informal volunteering has now exceeded pre-pandemic baselines—a significant development for understanding America's civic engagement.
The Rise of Virtual and Hybrid Volunteering
For the first time, the 2023 research included a measure of virtual volunteering, finding that 82 percent of formal volunteers served completely in-person, averaging 64 hours of service between September 2022 and September 2023, while over 13.4 million engaged in virtual or hybrid volunteering, averaging 95 hours of service in that period.
Collectively, virtual and hybrid volunteers served more than 1.2 billion hours and contributed over $41.5 billion in economic value. This is a significant finding: virtual volunteers actually commit more hours on average than in-person volunteers.
In 2025, 57% of volunteer opportunities included a hybrid or virtual option. Virtual volunteering skewed younger: 60% of virtual volunteers were under 55, according to recent nonprofit volunteering analysis.
Key Finding: Virtual and hybrid volunteers were slightly older than volunteers who served completely in person. On average, the typical virtual or hybrid volunteer was 49 years of age compared to 46 years of age for the typical in-person volunteer. People living with a disability are overrepresented among virtual and hybrid volunteers.
Who Volunteers: Demographics & Trends
Gender
Women volunteer at higher rates than men. Women's formal volunteering rate is roughly five percentage points higher than men's, a gap that has held steady for more than a decade. Women were more likely to formally volunteer than men (30.9% vs 25.6%), but women and men volunteered informally at about the same rate (54.5% and 54.0%).
Generation & Age
Gen X has the highest formal volunteering rate of any generation, at 27.2%, according to the latest AmeriCorps data. Baby Boomers lead in informal helping, at 58.7%. Older volunteers are doing more of the day-to-day care work, often outside any organization's tracking system.
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, and people with family incomes of less than $25,000.
In 2023, people ages 16-17 had the highest formal volunteering rate at 34.1%, highlighting strong youth engagement.
Education & Income
Volunteering rates rise with education level. Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher are roughly twice as likely to formally volunteer as adults with a high school diploma or less. Similarly, volunteering rates also rise with household income. The pattern is consistent across every recent biennial release. People with more time and resources volunteer more, full stop.
Family Status
Parents with children at home volunteer at higher rates than non-parents. Family programs and family-friendly volunteer roles are not a niche; they are an underused recruitment channel.
Geographic Variation: Who Volunteers Where
Volunteering rates vary significantly by state. In 2023, Utah had the highest rate of residents engaged in formal volunteering: 46.6%. Vermont had the second highest rate with 40.5% of residents, and Minnesota and Nebraska tied for third at 40.3%.
For informal helping, Utahans are also the most likely to informally help their neighbors—their 2023 rate of informal volunteers was 68.2%. Montanans rank second (68.0%), and Coloradans were third (67.4%).
State rates of informal volunteering in 2023 ranged from around 46% to 68% while formal volunteering rates hovered between 19% and 47%.
What Drives Volunteering: Motivations & Barriers
Clear expectations, flexible commitments, social connection, and opportunities to contribute skills motivate volunteers in 2025–2026. For Gen Z, community impact tops the list of considerations, with 93% of respondents emphasizing its importance. For Gen Z, volunteering is driven by a desire to make a tangible difference, making community contribution a core motivator.
However, nonprofits face real challenges. Nonprofit leaders most often pointed to internal capacity issues rather than volunteer supply, with 40% saying having the staff to manage volunteers was their top struggle. Other commonly cited challenges included finding and retaining motivated volunteers (38%) and establishing volunteer opportunities (36%).
Confusion or long-term commitments are major barriers to participation. Additionally, 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, reflecting a shift toward episodic volunteering.
The Nonprofit Sector & Volunteer Dependence
Volunteers are essential infrastructure for America's nonprofit ecosystem. According to 2025 research from Urban Institute, three in four (75%) nonprofit organizations say that volunteers are important to their operations, with nearly a quarter (23%) entirely dependent on volunteers.
There are more than 1.97 million active nonprofits registered in the United States. The competition for any given volunteer's time is real and rising.
Looking ahead, most nonprofits (68%) expect demand for their services to increase in 2026, but only 31% of organizations said they are expanding how many people they serve. In 2025, 81% of organizations surveyed struggled to raise enough funds to cover all of their costs, and 36% ended their most recent fiscal year with an operating deficit.
Corporate Volunteering: A Growing Trend
61% of CSR professionals report increased employee volunteerism in 2025—the third straight year companies have marked an increase in employee volunteerism. A recent survey found that 77% of companies reported increased workplace volunteerism in 2024, representing a substantial year-over-year jump.
Almost 60% of companies provide paid time off for employees to volunteer, and on average, companies with VTO policies offer an average of 20 VTO hours per team member per year.
Corporate volunteer programs are evolving: more skills-based, more flexible, and increasingly tied to business value and employee connection (including virtual/hybrid options rebounding from 48% to 57%).
The Health Benefits of Volunteering
Research consistently demonstrates that volunteering benefits the volunteer, not just the community. Volunteering reduces the risk of depression by 43% among seniors, researchers reported in a study published in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society.
Research has shown that volunteering leads to lower rates of depression and anxiety, especially for people 65 and older. Volunteering reduces stress and increases positive, relaxed feelings by releasing dopamine. Research has found that volunteering among adults, age 60 and over, provided benefits to physical and mental health.
More broadly, the benefits of serving others are astounding—research shows that volunteering can even reduce mortality and increase overall functioning.
What This Means for Your Volunteer Program
Check detailed volunteer demographic breakdowns to understand who's volunteering in your region and community.
The Challenge for Nonprofits: The data shows that while volunteer participation is rebounding, the average hours per volunteer have declined significantly, and many volunteers expect flexibility, clear role definitions, and skill-based opportunities. Organizations must modernize their volunteer management infrastructure to compete for a shrinking pool of committed hours.
To streamline volunteer screening and onboarding, VolunteerBadge offers simple, affordable identity verification and background checks—$5 per volunteer for comprehensive FCRA-compliant screening with no monthly fees. Learn how to import your existing volunteer roster or explore volunteer management best practices in our academy.
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Download the Data
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How are volunteer hours tracked and verified?
Volunteer hours come primarily from the AmeriCorps biennial Civic Engagement and Volunteering (CEV) Supplement, a nationally representative survey of approximately 45,000 U.S. households conducted by the Census Bureau. Organizations also self-report hours through volunteer management systems. These figures represent estimates aggregated across all formal volunteering in the United States.
Q: What's the difference between formal and informal volunteering?
Formal volunteering involves organized work through a nonprofit, civic, or community organization. Informal helping includes assisting neighbors, friends, or family with tasks like yard work, childcare, or errands without going through an organization. Both count as civic engagement and contribute to community well-being, but only formal volunteering is typically tracked in organizational data.
Q: Why has the economic value of volunteer time increased?
The value of volunteer time is updated annually using wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for all production and non-supervisory workers on private non-farm payrolls. This reflects actual wage growth in the economy, plus a 15.7% adjustment for fringe benefits. As wages rise, the replacement value of volunteer labor increases proportionally.
Q: How do I use these statistics in grant proposals or annual reports?
Use the national volunteer hour value of $36.14 per hour (2025 data) for fiscal year 2025 reporting. Better yet, use your state-specific figure from Independent Sector's interactive map, which ranges from $17.32 to $52.06. Cite the source directly: "Independent Sector and the Do Good Institute (April 2026)." Always include the date your data was collected—sourced statistics are more credible than recycled figures.
Q: What does the data say about volunteer retention?
The decline in average hours per volunteer (from 96.5 in 2017 to 70 in 2023) and in the median hours served by volunteers suggests a shift toward episodic volunteering—shorter commitments, project-based roles, and fewer long-term volunteers. Organizations report that retention is now their top operational concern, surpassing recruitment. Clear role definitions, flexibility, and recognition of impact matter most to today's volunteers.
Sources & References
- AmeriCorps — Volunteering and Civic Life in America
- U.S. Census Bureau — New U.S. Census Bureau and AmeriCorps Research Tracks Virtual Volunteering for First Time (November 2024)
- Independent Sector — Value of Volunteer Time (April 2026)
- Do Good Institute — New Value of Volunteer Time Jumps to $36.14 (April 2026)
- NonProfit PRO — Report: More Than 75.7 Million People Volunteered in America (December 2024)
- SignUpGenius — The State of Volunteering 2025: Trends & What to Expect (December 2025)
- Activate Good — Volunteering Statistics 2025: Who Volunteers & Why It Matters
- Nonprofit Learning Lab — Volunteer Engagement in 2025: How to Plan for 2026 (January 2026)
- Johnson Center for Philanthropy — What Does the Future of Volunteering Look Like? (January 2025)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — More than 11 Million People Volunteered on an Average Day in 2022
- USAFacts — How Many Americans Volunteer? (December 2024)
- The Hill — Volunteering Rate Sees Record Growth: Survey (November 2024)
- VolunteerHub — 40 Volunteer Statistics Every Nonprofit Should Know in 2026
- Groundswell — 18 Key Volunteering Statistics for CSR Leaders (2025)
- Bloomerang — 20+ Volunteer Statistics Every Nonprofit Should Know (May 2026)
- NonProfit PRO — Data Shows Employee Volunteerism Continuing to Rise in 2025 (December 2025)
- U.S. Census Bureau — At Height of Pandemic, More Than Half Helped Neighbors, 23% Formally Volunteered (January 2023)
- Independent Sector — Release: New Value of Volunteer Time of $36.14 Per Hour (April 2026)
- Momentive — Volunteer Trends 2026: Insights for Nonprofits (February 2026)
- National Federation of Community Broadcasters — Nonprofit Trends to Watch in 2026 (January 2026)
- Double the Donation — Volunteerism Trends in 2026 & Corporate Incentives (May 2026)
- Independent Sector — New Report Shows Nonprofits Are Being Squeezed by Growing Community Need and Fewer Resources (December 2025)
- NonProfit PRO — Volunteerism Rebounds After Pandemic Lows (January 2026)
- Junior Achievement Arizona — Generation Z and Perspectives on Volunteering (August 2024)
- DonorBox — Volunteer Statistics 2025: How Charitable Are We With Our Time? (July 2025)
- American Red Cross — The State of Gen Z Volunteerism 2024 (October 2025)
- All Seniors — Benefits of Intergenerational Volunteer Programs for Seniors 2025 (December 2025)
- U.S. News & World Report — Avoiding Isolation By Volunteering Offers Mental Health Benefits to Seniors (January 2025)
- Mayo Clinic Health System — 3 Health Benefits of Volunteering
- Illinois Cognitive Resources Network — How Volunteering Benefits Your Health (April 2025)
- U.S. Census Bureau — The Decline of Volunteering in the United States: Is it the Economy? (June 2025)
- Points of Light — Updated Value of a Volunteer Hour in the U.S. (April 2026)
- Volunteer Commons — Value of a Volunteer Hour (April 2026)
- TeamStage — Volunteering Statistics for 2024: How Charitable Are We? (February 2024)
- Meals on Wheels America — Volunteer Decline: Why Meals on Wheels Needs More Volunteers (August 2025)
- Nonprofits Source — Volunteering Statistics and Trends For Nonprofits
- Psychology Today — Volunteering and Mental Health (July 2025)
Changelog: First published June 2026. Last updated June 25, 2026. Data sources include AmeriCorps CEV Supplement (2023, released November 2024), Independent Sector Value of Volunteer Time (2025, released April 2026), and U.S. Census Bureau Civic Engagement research.
Disclaimer: This report is educational and informational in nature. It is not legal advice. Organizations using volunteer statistics for grant reporting, compliance, or organizational decision-making should consult legal counsel regarding applicable laws and regulations in their jurisdiction. Data is sourced from government and nonprofit research institutions and represents aggregate national trends; individual organization results will vary.
