A 2023 report found that Philadelphia is among the most helpful major cities in America, writes Andrew Van Dam for The Washington Post.

The report was conducted based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. Conducted every other year, the survey asks a set of questions about volunteering and civic life. Helpfulness is calculated through four major criteria: donating, joining, volunteering, and doing favors for neighbors.

Of the top 12 major metro areas ranked by two measures of civic engagement — informal helping and formal volunteering  — Philadelphia trailed only Boston for the top spot.

While Philly trailed Boston in informal helping by the slightest of margins (57.9 percent to 57.8 percent), Philly led the survey in formal volunteering at 28.7 percent.

Informal helping asks how often in the past year you and your neighbors did “favors for each other such as house sitting, watching each other’s children, lending tools, and other things to help each other.”

Despite being known as places where people punch police horses and throw racial slurs at athletes, neither Philadelphia and Boston are strangers to being towards the top of the most helpful list.

The states of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, however, both rank closer to the middle of the pack.

Read more about how the major U.S. cities rank in helpfulness in The Washington Post.

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