“America’s Civic Health Index: Broken Engagement” is available from the National Conference on Citizenship.
College graduates in the United States vote, volunteer and trust the government in larger percentages than people who do not graduate from high school, concludes a report by the National Conference on Citizenship.
The report by the Washington-based National Conference on Citizenship tracked several civic health indicators such as participation in civic or religious groups, as well as understanding and participating in politics, for a 30-year period from 1975 until 2005.
Among other findings, it found that while voting participation has dropped across the board since 1975, the decrease for high school dropouts—from 47 percent to 31 percent—was significantly more than the drop for college graduates, which decreased from 72 percent to 62 percent.