• Using census data, the federal Corporation for National and Community Service has found that 3 in 10 college students, or 3.3 million, volunteered last year, mostly as mentors or tutors, and often with religious groups.
  • That's up 600,000 from three years earlier, or just after 9/11.
• The most visible evidence of this trend came after hurricane Katrina, when some 200,000 students used their college breaks to help rebuild the Gulf Coast.
• The number of college students volunteering grew by 600,000 from 2.7 million in 2002 to 3.3 million in 2005.
  • The growth rate of college student volunteers (approximately 20%) is more than double the growth rate of all adult volunteers (9%).
  • In 2005, approximately 30.2 percent of college students volunteered, exceeding the volunteer rate for the general adult population of 28.8 percent.
• The vast majority (84%) of current college student volunteers were of high-school age (14 to 18 years old) in 2001.
  • Since September 2001, the overall percent of college students who volunteer has increased from 27.1 percent to 30.2 percent.
• The bulk of the increase in the college student volunteering rate comes from the difference in the volunteer rates of 18 to 24 year old college students in 2005 (30.2%) and 18 to 24 year old college students in 2002 (26.8%).
• Among college student volunteers, tutoring (26.6%) and mentoring (23.8%) are the most popular volunteer activities.
• 39.2 percent of black college student volunteers engage in mentoring activities, compared to 22.3 percent of white college student volunteers.
• Volunteer rates are highest among students who work 1-10 hours (46.4%) and 11-15 hours (35%) a week, while students who are not employed volunteer at a considerably lower rate (29.8%). 
• Students who work 31-35 hours and 36-40 hours exhibit volunteer rates of 22.8 percent and 23.2 percent, respectively.
• College students follow the national trend in volunteering, with females (33%) volunteering at a higher rate than males (26.8%), and whites (32%) volunteering at a higher rate than students of other races and ethnicities (23.6%).
• College students are twice as likely to volunteer as individuals of the same age who are not enrolled in an institution of higher education (30.2% and 15.1%, respectively).
• College students who are enrolled full time (31.4%) are more likely to be volunteers than college students who are enrolled part time (21%).
• Nearly a third (31.6%) of college student volunteers serve with educational or youth services organizations, compared to about a quarter (26.3%) of the general adult volunteer population.
• Less than a quarter (23.4%) of college student volunteers serve with religious organizations, compared to more than a third (34.8%) of the general adult volunteer population.
• 44.1 percent of college student volunteers engage in "regular" volunteering (volunteering 12 or more weeks a year with their main organization).

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