Brilliant, accurate study ranks Philly among most helpful cities in the country
“We’ll admit we were astounded,” said a data columnist in Washington, D.C., a city known for not having any personality.
It turns out, America’s rudest city is also one of its nicest.
A new report by the country’s leading volunteer agency says Philadelphia is one of the most helpful cities in the United States. According to AmeriCorps, Philadelphia ranked second for civic engagement, with more than half its residents informally helping people and nearly 30% formally volunteering for good causes.
By the agency’s definition, “informal helping” means helping just to help — not as part of a volunteer organization. It’s based on the number of times respondents told surveyors they did favors for others, “such as house sitting, watching each other’s children, lending tools, and other things to help each other.”
Don’t be so surprised, Philadelphia is helpful and neighborly, damn it.
The survey was conducted through a partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau, which has tracked people’s helpfulness since 2002. It’s not the first time Philly has come out on top. The Census Bureau and AmeriCorps found that Philadelphia and Boston have consistently ranked high over the years when it comes to helpfulness — much to the surprise of certain national news outlets.
Yeah, that’s right, the city that is consistently stereotyped for being rude — even ranked “rudest” by a September report — is actually among the most neighborly and has the highest percentage of residents who formally volunteer to help, according to some of the most trustworthy surveyors out there.
“At the risk of being pilloried as the Department of Crude Urban Stereotypes, we’ll admit we were astounded and confounded to read that one of our favorite federal data sets named Boston and Philadelphia as the most helpful major cities in America,” said a Washington Post data columnist who’s based in a city known for not having any personality, being luxury-obsessed, traffic-congested, and lonely (two can play this game).
For those who know Philly beyond the headlines, the City of Brotherly Love’s ranking shouldn’t be a surprise.
It’s true, that certain D.C. outlet may have linked to a 2018 story written by California reporters about Eagles fans repeatedly punching police horses — not ideal to say the least.
But instead, they could have considered highlighting the local high school students who are trying to clean the Schuylkill with mussels. Or taken a page from Inquirer columnist Helen Ubiñas’ work, where she’s highlighted community members crowdfunding to help the young father who was left paralyzed after being shot while shielding three children from gunfire during a robbery. Or the locals who signed up to become bone marrow donors after hearing about 7-year-old Jax Ramirez, who has a rare autoimmune disorder. Or people like Robin Borlandoe, a retiree who took on the title of “Lifeguard Grandma” to help address a shortage at the city’s public pools.
» READ MORE: It’s been a year, Philly. And a lot of it’s been really good — thanks to you.
Of the 12 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, Boston ranked most helpful while Miami was considered least helpful. Philadelphia — which was just barely edged out by Boston, by 0.1% — also ranked high when it came to other facets of civic engagement, including the percentage of residents who are members of community organizations and that give charitable donations.
The survey also found that in 2021, more than 1.4 million Philadelphia residents volunteered through an organization, amounting to 99.2 million hours of service.
On Reddit, Philly’s high ranking was met by some with snark (true to form), but also general agreement.
“We are neighborly just don’t leave your block,” one user wrote. “But if you do, just leave a cone in your place so you have somewhere to come back to,” replied another.
Others pointed to their good relationships with their neighbors, including a user who said his neighbors brought over surprise pretzels when the Eagles won.
“My neighbors have grabbed my packages, shoveled snow, babysat my son, and helped my family in more ways than I could list in a single Reddit post,” another said.
Read AmeriCorp’s full report here.
Staff columnist Helen Ubiñas contributed to the reporting on this story.