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Spotlight: Civic Health in Massachusetts

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

Last week, the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) and Harvard’s Institute of Politics released their “2011 Massachusetts Civic Health Index” report. Key findings include:

• Compared with other states, Massachusetts had higher-than-average voter turnout rates in 2010: the Commonwealth’s voter turnout level was 52.2%, compared with a national average of 45.5%.
• Though voter turnout rates may be higher in Massachusetts, the rates of neighborliness are among the lowest: “When looking at activities considered to strengthen social connection, Massachusetts ranked 46th in the country among Americans self-reporting they help out neighbors at least a few times a week. (MA: 12.8%; U.S.: 15.2%)”
• “Massachusetts’ community collaboration is similar to the rate seen nationally. Looking at the degree to which the Commonwealth’s citizens work collaboratively on local issues – specifically how often citizens attend community meetings and work with neighbors to fix or improve something – Massachusetts’ proportion of 5.7% marginally exceeds the proportion nationally (4.7%). However, the percent of Massachusetts’ citizens attending community meetings between 2006 and 2010 was considerably higher than the national average (2006: MA – 12.4%, U.S. – 8.8%; 2010: MA – 11%, U.S. – 9.2%).”

You can read the entire report over at NCoC.