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The Rural/Urban Volunteering Divide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Laurie E. Paarlberg Open the ORCID record for Laurie E. Paarlberg [Opens in a new window] ,
Rebecca Nesbit ,
Su Young Choi  and
Ryan Moss
Laurie E. Paarlberg*
Affiliation:
Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, USA
Rebecca Nesbit*
Affiliation:
Department of Public Administration and Policy, University of Georgia, Athens, USA
Su Young Choi*
Affiliation:
Department of Public Administration and Policy, University of Georgia, Athens, USA
Ryan Moss*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Georgia, Athens, USA
*
lpaarlbe@indiana.edu
Nesbit7@uga.edu
suyoung.choi25@uga.edu
Ryan.moss25@uga.edu
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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 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 differs across rural and urban places. These findings have important implications for theory and empirical analysis.

Keywords

VolunteerRuralUrban

Information

Type
Research Papers
Information
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 107 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © International Society for Third-Sector Research 2021

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