The American Enterprise Institute's Survey Center on American Life conducted a national survey of 5,058 U.S. adults asking how willing people in their area would be to help their neighbors. Latter-day Saints were the highest-scoring group — 45% said their neighbors would be very willing to help.
The AEI finding is consistent with separate research from the University of Pennsylvania, which documented that active LDS members volunteer an average of 430 hours per year — roughly seven times the average American volunteer rate. Penn researchers described active Latter-day Saints as "the most pro-social members in American society."
Two independent research programs — AEI on neighborly willingness and Penn on volunteer hours — point in the same direction: LDS communities are unusually oriented toward serving the people around them.
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