What does this indicator measure?

This indicator is a measure of where people volunteer their time when they volunteer, and is provided for the Syracuse, Albany, Buffalo, and Rochester MSA’s (see notes below), as well as for New York State and the Nation.

Where people volunteered was categorized into 7 different types of institutions where people volunteered their time; Civic, Educational, Hospital, Religious, Social Service, Sports/Art, and Other.  Respondents may have answered that they volunteered time at more than one type of organizations, but totals are based on all time volunteered, so they will sum to 100%.  An appropriate way to utilize this measure is to say “On average X% of volunteer time/hours were volunteered at [Choose a type of organization: Civic, Religious, etc] organizations.”

Notes: There are two important things to note about this data.  First, the results are based on 3 year averages (2008-2010) of annual participation.  Three years data was collected, and then averaged out annually.  Second, the results are based on the Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA’s), NOT the cities listed or their respective counties.  An MSA is defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as a geographic entity that contains a core urban area population of 50,000 or more and includes the county where the core area is located and may include adjacent counties that have a high degree of societal and economic integration with that urban core. The Syracuse MSA is a 3,083 square-mile area which consists of Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties.