December 12, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Volunteering in 2005

About 65.4 million people volunteered through or for an organization at least once between September 2004 and September 2005. The proportion of the population who volunteered was 28.8 percent, the same as in each of the prior 2 years.

Volunteer rates by age, September 2005 (percent)
[Chart data—TXT]

By age, persons age 35 to 44 were the most likely to volunteer (34.5 percent), closely followed by 45- to 54-year olds (32.7 percent). Teenagers also had a relatively high volunteer rate, 30.4 percent, perhaps reflecting an emphasis on volunteer activities in schools.

Volunteer rates were lowest among persons in their early twenties (19.5 percent) and among those age 65 and over (24.8 percent).

These data are from a supplement to the September 2005 Current Population Survey. Data in this article refer to the period from September 2004 to September 2005. Find out more in "Volunteering in the United States, 2005" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-2278.