Millennials No Slackers When It Comes to Volunteering, Poll Finds

A new survey finds that under-30 Americans are more likely than their parents to consider volunteering a "very important" civic obligation, the Associated Press writes. Young adults increasingly rate volunteerism highly while showing declining interest in other areas of civic involvement such as voting, jury duty, and keeping up with the news, according to the AP-GfK poll.

The share of young adults who consider donating time very important has climbed by 10 percentage points since 1984. Actual volunteering among that cohort is also on the rise, from 14 percent of adults under 30 in 1989 to 20 percent last year, according to census data analyzed by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

"We're on the crux of something big, because these Millennials are going to take this spirit of giving and wanting to change communities and they're going to become parents soon," said Wendy Spencer, the corporation's chief executive.