INDIANAPOLIS | Notwithstanding a voter turnout rate that's among the lowest in the nation, Hoosier participation in civic life and informal political activity is growing, according to a new study co-sponsored by Indiana University Northwest.
The 2015 Indiana Civic Health Index finds Hoosiers join service or civic groups, attend a church or other religious institution, volunteer, give to charity, visit or speak with friends and eat dinner with a family member more often than Americans as a whole.
Hoosiers also have confidence in major institutions at or above the national level for public schools (84.4 percent), corporations (70 percent) and the news media (57.7 percent), according to the study released Monday.
At the same time, researchers analyzing the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey found Hoosiers rank in the lowest tier of states for public meeting attendance (46th), participation in school, neighborhood or community groups (44th) and working with neighbors to fix their communities (47th).
That's even as the state's ranking for frequently talking about politics jumped to 18th in the country, from 48th in 2011, and Hoosiers were more likely than residents of other states to buy or boycott a product based on their values.
"If you look overall you get a mixed picture. You get some things in which Indiana is shown to be improving, and others where we're behind," said former Chief Justice Randall Shepard. "It reflects a state that has a very respectable foundation and tradition of connectivity."
Urban residents and Hoosiers with a college degree generally were most likely to be engaged in civic life, according to the study. Though rural residents tended to have greater trust in their neighbors and spoke more frequently with friends and relatives.
Ellen Szarleta, IUN associate professor of public and environmental affairs and co-author of the report, said the "stark and dramatic increases" in civic participation associated with education can guide policymakers seeking to improve Indiana's civic health.
"We have challenges in the state with respect to our educational attainment, but we also have this opportunity now -- especially because of the strong link we saw in this report to civic engagement -- to build on that," Szarleta said.
IUN Chancellor William Lowe said he hopes the report starts a conversation about the value of civic life and encourages other institutions to do their part.
"A strategic priority for Indiana University Northwest is civic engagement, community-based engagement," Lowe said. "One of the ways in which we demonstrate that is by taking something that is distinctive to our university campus, like research, and showing how that can be applied to a broader community issue, such as civic engagement in the state of Indiana and in our region."