What does this indicator measure?

This indicator measures volunteerism in the Syracuse, Albany, Buffalo, Rochester MSA’s (see notes below), as well as in New York State and Onondaga County when appropriate.  Measures include:

• Average number of volunteers annually
• Average volunteer rate annually (percentage of all people who said they volunteered at some point)
• Average volunteer hours per resident (if everyone in the MSA volunteered the same amount of time how much would it be?)
• Average total number of volunteer hours annually
• The average intensive volunteer rate annually (what percentage of those who volunteered said they volunteered 100 hours or more?)

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, in other words 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.