A Research Study on the Demographics of Volunteering

Abstract

Voluntary work can have many benefits to individuals such as decreased depression and mortality and  increase in overall health. Volunteering also leads to many community benefits like sustainability and community unity. In this study, I set out to analyze who exactly volunteers by taking data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on volunteering over 5 years and reviewing many common trends. Volunteering is, surprisingly, an act that a very small number of Americans take part in. Through this study, I was able to conclude which demographics those volunteers are from. I used the factors: Education, Age, Sex, Race, and Employment level. These factors all play a role in which sector of Americans, demographically, contribute to their community through volunteering. Through the five years that the US Bureau was able to collect data, the numbers had a low standard deviation, leading to the conclusion that even though the last date that the data was collected was in 2015, the numbers in terms of demographic percentages, would not have changed. This information could be used by non-profit organizations to target specific demographics when sharing volunteer opportunities, so they can maximize the possibility of finding volunteers.