[Community Hightlights] [Press Release]

For Immediate Release: Contact: Phil Nash, 303-398-7444
March 1, 2001

National Survey: Denver Residents Rank High in Social Action and Tolerance; Lower than Nation on Religious Involvement

Denver, CO - Compared to the rest of the nation, the City of Denver is a hotbed of activist politics, and a city where people are more likely to have friendships with people from different walks of life. But Denver citizens are less likely to get involved in faith-based activities.

So says a national survey of social and civic engagement released today by the Saguaro Seminar at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. The Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey builds on the work of Prof. Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone: Collapse and Revival of the American Community (Simon & Schuster, 2000) that details how markedly our civic ties have weakened over the last generation.

Social capital refers to social networks and the norms of reciprocity that arise from them. A growing body of hard-nosed literature over the last several years shows that social capital, and the trust, reciprocity, information, and cooperation associated with it, enables many important individual and social goods. According to Putnam's research, Americans pay a price for frayed ties in the quality of our education, our physical health and happiness, the safety of our streets, the responsiveness of our democratic institutions, and in economic development.

Putnam's research measures social capital in 10 distinct categories: social trust (of fellow citizens and government); interracial trust; participation in conventional politics; participation in "protest" politics; civic leadership; membership in an organization or association; informal socializing (with friends and neighbors); diversity of friendships; giving and volunteering; and faith-based engagement.

Extensive details on the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey are available at www.cfsv.org/communitysurvey

Who Was Surveyed in Denver

In Denver, 501 people were interviewed as part of the survey, which was funded locally by The Denver Foundation, The Piton Foundation and Rose Community Foundation. The sample was confined to Denver residents. Those surveyed represented a cross-section of the city's residents:

• 53 percent were women.
  
• One-third of the total sample had never married (compared to one-fifth of those sampled nationally).
  
• 16.7 percent had graduate degrees (compared to 10.6 percent for the national sample)
  
• 19.6 percent had family incomes greater than $75,000 (compared to 20.7 percent for the national sample)
  
• 43.5 percent of those sampled were in the 18-34 age category. The average age for the total sample was 41.6 years.
  
• Latino respondents comprised 29 percent of the sample (compared to 7 percent nationally).
  
• African-American respondents comprised 11.6 percent of the sample (compared to 14.4 percent nationally).

The Community Quotient (CQ)

Rankings were based on a "community quotient" (CQ) score which shows a community's performance in the ten dimensions of social capital relative to what was predicted given its urbanity (versus rural or suburban character), ethnicity, levels of education, and age distribution. A score above 100 indicates that a community shows more of this community connectedness than its demographics would predict; conversely, a score below 100 indicates that a community shows less of this type of social capital than its demographics would suggest.

Where Denver Scores High

Denver's highest social capital score is in its diversity of friendships with a CQ of 125, the third highest in the nation. (Boulder ranked second.) The survey asked respondents if they had personal friends with any of these characteristics: a business owner, owner of a vacation home, welfare recipient, gay, manual worker, white, African-American, Latino, Asian, community leader, and of a different faith. These "bridging ties" are especially valuable in producing community solidarity and in forging a larger consensus on how communities need to change or work together.

Denver also scored high in protest politics with a CQ of 120 and ranking fourth in the nation in this aspect of social capital. (Boulder is third.) This category is characterized by the degree to which people will take part in marches, demonstrations, boycotts, rallies, local reform-oriented organizations, and ethnically related organizations. In the area of participation in conventional politics, Denver's CQ was 101, or very close to the anticipated level.

Where Denver Scores Low

Denver scores somewhat lower than anticipated in faith-based engagement, with a CQ of 88, and a national ranking of 37 out of 40. This measure looks at religious attendance and membership; participation in place-of-worship activities outside of religious services; giving to religious causes; and volunteering at the place of worship.

Mid-Range Scores

Denver's scores in seven types of social capital were very close to what social scientists would have predicted based on existing data. The scores at a glance are:

In Summary

The local sponsors of the benchmark survey will spend about two months reviewing and analyzing the local data to gain more insight into Denver's social capital status.

"The scores and national rankings of the benchmark survey are interesting, but there's a lot more to the story of social capital in Denver," says Marguerite Johnson, Vice President for Programs at Rose Community Foundation. "What is much more valuable are the survey findings that we will continue to analyze in greater depth to better understand the qualities we have to build on in creating a stronger sense of community, as well as looking at areas where we have opportunities to grow."

Marlene Casini, Director of Advancement and Communication at The Denver Foundation said, "Community foundations have traditionally played a central role in building the social capital of America's communities. With the beginning of a new century, and the dramatic changes taking place in communities throughout the country, this survey is a tool that can help us focus on the importance of staying connected to each other for our health and well-being."