Boston has been voted #1 for “informal helping.” You may be wondering what the heck is “informal helping?” It is defined as “assisting others outside of an organizational context, including doing favors for neighbors.” The website Americorps.com did a survey recently where they examined examined the 12 biggest metropolitan cities in the U.S. and evaluated them based on informal and formal volunteering. Boston topped the list for informal helping with a rate of 57.9%. When was the data taken and how is it rated? The study was done during September 2020 to 2021 when COVID-19 was at its highest peak and people were either willing or not to help their fellow neighbors by volunteering or by simply doing something nice.
If you are looking to move to a different city, and you expect your neighbors to lend a helping hand, DO NOT move to Miami. Miami was ranked as the least neighborly city in America with 35.5% of residents willing to help their fellow residents.
As far as “formal helping,” which is described as helping within a more formal, organized environment like a charity or charity event, “23.2% of Americans, or 60.7 million people, formally volunteered with organizations between September 2020 and 2021.” Montana came out on top of that category with a rate of 68.8%.
There were other categories that were rated including people with children under 18 are more likely to help with 58% of them willing as opposed to people without kids under 18 with 49%. Also it looks like veterans are more likely to want to help their neighbors. 59% of veterans are more willing to help their neighbors as opposed to 51% of non veterans. And the generation more willing to help their neighbors is the baby boomer generation at a rate of 59%.
So if you’re looking to move to a new city and being friendly and helpful is important to you, take a look at this list before you make your decision.
