The Rural/Urban Volunteering Divide
June 2025
Working Paper Number:
CES-25-42
Abstract
Are rural residents more likely to volunteer than those living in urban places? Although early sociological theory posited that rural residents were more likely to experience social bonds connecting them to their community, increasing their odds of volunteer engagement, empirical support is limited. Drawing upon the full population of rural and urban respondents to the United States Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS) Volunteering Supplement (2002-2015), we found that rural respondents are more likely to report volunteering compared to urban respondents, although these differences are decreasing over time. Moreover, we found that propensities for rural and urban volunteerism vary based on differences in both individual and place-based characteristics; further, the size of these effects differ across rural and urban places. These findings have important implications for theory and empirical analysis.
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survey,
rural,
disadvantaged,
population,
town,
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neighborhood,
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Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Current Population Survey,
Chicago Census Research Data Center,
United States Census Bureau,
Census Bureau Disclosure Review Board,
Federal Statistical Research Data Center
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