Figure 1: Percent of Adults Who Are Very or Somewhat Active in One of More Community Organizations By Education and Income

Figure 2: Percent of Adults Who Are "Very or Somewhat" Active in Specific Community Organizations, King County, 2004

Figure 3: Percent of Adults who are Very or Somewhat Active in Community Organizations by King County Region

Figures:  
• Figure 1: Percent of Adults Who Are Very or Somewhat Active in One of More Community Organizations By Education and Income  – 
• Figure 2: Percent of Adults Who Are "Very or Somewhat" Active in Specific Community Organizations, King County, 2004  – 
• Figure 3: Percent of Adults who are Very or Somewhat Active in Community Organizations by King County Region

Data Discussion

The Indicator Defined

Subset of Percent of Adults Who Are Very or Somewhat Active in One or More Community Organizations King County, 2004. The 7 kinds of community involvement that were included in the survey were: political groups; civic groups; youth groups or youth sports teams; arts, culture, music or theatre groups; school or educational organizations; religious groups or organizations; or a neighborhood group or block organization.

Data Interpretation/Evaluation

Involvement in Community Organizations was measured by asking King County adults how actively they had participated in seven specific types of activities in the past 12 months. The number of activities was added for each respondent. The 7 kinds of community involvement that were included in the survey were: political groups; civic groups; youth groups or youth sports teams; arts, culture, music or theatre groups; school or educational organizations; religious groups or organizations; or a neighborhood group or block organization.

Not measured specifically by this particular set of questions is the number of people involved in social change or advocacy groups or those involved in a particular community activity, such as community gardening or beautification efforts.

In 2004, 83% of King County adults were “very active” or “somewhat active” in at least one activity in the community. People with household incomes of $50,000 or higher are more involved in community activities than those earning between $15,000 and $24,999.(Figure 1)

People with a college education are more active than those with a high school education or less. (Figure 1)

There were no significant differences in community involvement levels by region of the County. (Figure 3)

Data Source and Limitations

Data was contributed by Communities Count (www.communitiescount.org).  The involvement in community organizations measures are from the King County Community Health Survey, 2004.

Since these questions were asked and coded differently in 2004 than in previous years, the data are not directly comparable with those from 1999 or 2001. 

The limitations of an English-only telephone survey include the following: a) people who do not have a telephone are missed, b) people who do not speak English do not participate, c) people who have less education and lower incomes tend to be under-represented.

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