The City of Brotherly Love is living up to its name. To the surprise of many – but not Philadelphians – a recent report by AmeriCorps found that Philadelphia is one of the most helpful and neighborly cities in America, writes Andrew Van Dam for The Washington Post.

The report used the Current Population Survey, conducted by the Census Bureau, to determine the most helpful cities throughout the nation. Each year, the Census survey includes a set of questions about volunteering and civic life.

The results show that Philadelphia has an informal helping rate of 57.8 percent, which is second only to Boston’s 57.9 percent. Meanwhile, the City of Brotherly Love had the highest formal volunteering rate of 28.7 percent.

Finally a question relating to informal helping asked the participants how often within the last year they and their neighbors did “favors for each other such as house sitting, watching each other’s children, lending tools, and other things to help each other.”

These latest findings are not a fluke. Looking at pre-pandemic data, from 2017 and 2019, Philadelphia also ranked near the top of the list.

Read more about the most helpful cities in America in The Washington Post.

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