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NH’s civic health among the best in US

By Staff | Apr 18, 2013

New Hampshire residents have long taken pride in their civic engagement, especially when it comes to state and national politics.

If anyone doubts that, they haven’t been paying attention every four years when would-be presidents come courting in anticipation of the first-in-the-nation presidential primary.

So it should come as no surprise that a new study has found that New Hampshire residents, indeed, are more engaged than many of their counterparts in other states – and they rank pretty high in volunteering their time to charitable organizations, too.

On Wednesday, the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire released a report that compared New Hampshire to other states in what it called “civic health,” including such categories as voter turnout, participating in political conversations, reaching out to public officials, volunteering and charitable giving.

And in each case, New Hampshire fares well, exceeding the national average.

“New Hampshire citizens rank relatively high on several key indicators of civic health, including voter turnout in presidential election years and local elections, engaging in discussions of politics, attending public meetings, contacting public officials to express an opinion, and trusting their neighbors,” wrote the Carsey Institute’s Bruce Mallory and Quixada Moore-Vissing in the “2012 New Hampshire Civic Health Index.”

Specifically, the authors found that New Hampshire:

• Ranks among the top three or four states in the nation in voter turnout in presidential election years: 79.9 percent in 2004, 75 percent in 2008 and 79.3 percent in 2012. As for local elections, 63.6 percent of residents say they “always” or “sometimes” vote in these elections, compared with the national average of 57.8 percent.

• Ranks fourth in the percentage of residents who attend public meetings: 16.3 percent attended a public meeting in 2011, compared with the national average of 9.1 percent.

• Ranks No. 6 when it comes to discussing politics with family and friends on a daily or weekly basis at 36.8 percent, more than 7 points higher than the national average of 29.3 percent.

• Ranks 13th in contacting a public official to express an opinion: 16.9 percent versus the national average of 12.3 percent.

• Ranks 13th among states in boycotting a product because of its views about the social or political values of a company, 15.6 percent versus 12.1 percent.

Outside of politics, New Hampshire ranked 19th in volunteerism (29.4 percent to 26.8 percent) and 12th in the percentage of residents who donate more than $25 to charitable organizations (57.5 percent), though it is still dead last in the portion of one’s income donated to such organizations.

The authors also were able to identify two key factors that influence a state’s civic health – education and the economy.

“Education and economic well-being are closely correlated, so there is a sort of ‘trifecta’ in New Hampshire, in which relatively high levels of education, economic productivity and civic activity are all evident,” according to the authors.

That’s something our lawmakers and policymakers would be wise to keep in mind as they craft a new two-year budget for fiscal years 2014-15.

An online version of the 28-page report is available on the Carsey Institute’s website (carseyinstitute.unh.edu).

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