71% Say Volunteering Serves Community More Than Entering Politics

Americans still overwhelmingly believe that volunteering is more important than getting involved in politics in terms of serving their community, and most have done some kind of volunteer work within the past month.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that 71% believe doing volunteer work for a church, community organization or charitable group is more important in terms of serving the community than getting involved in politics. Only 14% believe getting involved in politics better serves the place they live. Another 14% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

These findings have been fairly consistent in surveys since June 2009. 

Fifty-four percent (54%) of adults say they have done volunteer work for a church, community organization or charitable group within the past month, up four points from last year. 

When it comes to faith, 56% believe life in the United States would be better if more Americans lived as Christians. That, too, is up from 50% last year, but this finding was at 61% in late 2008.  One-in-four adults (25%) does not think the country would be better off if more people lived as Christians, while 19% are undecided.

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This national survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on October 15-16, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.