US formal volunteering moved through a decade that dipped sharply in the pandemic year and then recovered, with the national rate falling to about 23% in 2021 before climbing back toward 28% by 2023, drawing on the Census Bureau and AmeriCorps Civic Engagement and Volunteering Supplement and its predecessor series. Across the same span, the share of volunteers who served through or alongside a religious congregation held steady as one of the largest single channels for formal volunteering, a descriptive pattern in the same federal program. These are national self-reported rates across survey waves, not a measured effect, and the 2021 dip reflects an unusual year for in-person service.
This report describes how the formal volunteering rate moved over roughly a decade, stated descriptively and tied to the survey waves the figures come from, alongside the steady role of congregations as a channel for that service. It assigns no blame for the pandemic-year dip and names no group as a foil; the trend is reported as the federal program measured it.
Key Findings
- The national formal volunteering rate moved from about 25% in the mid-2010s to roughly 30% in 2019, dipped to about 23% in 2021, and recovered toward 28% by 2023, from the Census and AmeriCorps Civic Engagement and Volunteering Supplement and its predecessor series. The figures are self-reported across survey waves.
- The 2021 dip coincided with the pandemic year, when in-person volunteering was constrained; the recovery by 2023 returned the rate near its pre-pandemic band, a descriptive pattern in the same federal program.
- Religious congregations remained one of the largest single channels through which Americans volunteer across the decade, a documented pattern in the federal volunteering series.
- The 2023 supplement added a measure of virtual volunteering, a reminder that what is counted as service evolves, so cross-wave comparisons carry a definitional caveat alongside the self-report caveat.
How did the volunteering rate move across the decade?
The national formal volunteering rate rose from about 25% in the mid-2010s to roughly 30% in 2019, fell to about 23% in 2021, and recovered toward 28% by 2023, from the Census and AmeriCorps Civic Engagement and Volunteering Supplement and its predecessor series. The shape of the decade is a climb, a sharp pandemic-year dip, and a recovery, and the dip is the feature that most shapes any cross-wave comparison. These are self-reported rates, and the 2021 figure reflects a year when in-person service was unusually constrained.
Read as a trend, the decade ends close to where its pre-pandemic stretch sat, with one deep interruption in the middle. The recovery toward 28% by 2023 is the descriptive headline: formal volunteering returned near its earlier band after the year that suppressed it, without the report inferring why beyond the timing.
What role did congregations play across the decade?
Religious congregations remained one of the largest single channels through which Americans volunteer across the decade, a documented pattern in the federal volunteering series, holding their place as the rate dipped and recovered. The supplement measures the organizations through which people serve, and congregations consistently rank among the leading ones, which is part of why congregational presence and local volunteering tend to move together. This is a descriptive share of where service is channeled, not a claim that congregations cause volunteering, and it travels with the same self-report caveat as the headline rate.
The steadiness is the point. Through a turbulent decade for in-person service, the congregational channel held, a stable route by which people found their way into formal volunteering even as the overall rate swung. The pattern connects to how, across metros, denser congregational presence tracks with higher volunteering, here seen over time rather than across places.
Methodology and limitations
This report describes how the US formal volunteering rate moved over roughly a decade, tied to the survey waves the figures come from, and the steady role of congregations as a service channel.
Provenance and sample. The figures come from the Census Bureau and AmeriCorps Civic Engagement and Volunteering Supplement, 2023 edition (conducted biennially since 2017), and its predecessor Volunteering and Civic Life supplements for earlier years, an official federal data program measuring formal and informal volunteering and civic participation among US adults. The congregational-channel figures are from the same program’s measure of the organizations through which people serve.
Method. The rates are national self-reported formal-volunteering shares, read across survey waves as a descriptive trend. The decade is described by its wave-to-wave movement; no model is fit and no effect is estimated.
Limitations. The figures are self-reported and carry recall and social-desirability caveats. The 2021 reading reflects an unusual pandemic year when in-person volunteering was constrained, so the dip is partly a feature of the year, not only of underlying willingness to serve. Definitions evolve: the 2023 supplement added a virtual-volunteering measure, so cross-wave comparisons carry a definitional caveat alongside the self-report one. The congregational-channel pattern is a descriptive share of where service is routed, correlational with congregational presence, and establishes no cause.
Conclusion
So how did a decade of volunteering move? Up to a pre-pandemic peak near 30%, down to about 23% in the year that made serving hardest, and back toward 28% by 2023, a dip and a recovery that left the rate close to where it began. Through all of it, congregations held their place as one of the steady channels into formal service.
The trend reads as resilience more than decline. A hard year suppressed in-person volunteering and the rate fell, and then people returned to it, with the congregational route holding firm across the swing. The data trace the shape of the decade and the steadiness of one channel within it, and leave the next decade, as trends always do, unwritten and open.
Sources
- The Association of Religion Data Archives, ongoing. U.S. Religion Census, Religious Congregations and Membership Study. thearda.com. Established research archive.
- U.S. Census Bureau and AmeriCorps, 2023. Current Population Survey, Civic Engagement and Volunteering Supplement, and predecessor Volunteering and Civic Life series. census.gov; data.americorps.gov. Official statistic.