Many posts have discussed economic and educational inequality. The effects of inequality reach many corners of American life.
American social and civic life was once defined by diverse clubs, groups, and organizations. However, it has declined by every conceivable measure since the mid-20th century.[i] Today’s Americans have fewer civic opportunities—that is, places, institutions, groups, programs, and activities in which they can experience community life.[ii] Americans participate in organized activities less often and join fewer community groups than they once did.[iii]
Relatedly, Americans have smaller social networks and fewer friends, and they spend less time with their friends, neighbors, and family members.[iv] This state of affairs has led Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to declare the United States is facing an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation.”[v]
But America’s civic decline has not affected all groups equally. Americans with college degrees often reside in communities with abundant civic opportunities and thriving civic cultures. They participate in associational life at high rates and have robust social and friendship networks.[vi] In contrast, the relational lives of Americans without college degrees have contracted dramatically—compared to Americans with these degrees today and without them in the past.[vii] Two institutions that were formerly crucial sources of civic connectedness for less educated Americans, unions and churches, are now more likely to serve college graduates.
Other civic opportunities are becoming stratified along educational lines. Americans with a high school education or less are more likely to live in civic deserts, lacking commercial places (e.g., coffee shops) and public places (e.g., community centers, parks, and libraries) that are hubs of community connection.[viii] Partly as a result, these Americans are less likely to participate in associational life and more likely to be socially isolated. As Timothy P. Carney writes in Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse, associational life has apparently become “a high-end good” that most people can’t access.[ix]
Despite the importance of community and relationships to human flourishing, there are substantial gaps in our understanding of how race and class constrain opportunities for community connection.[x] This report aims to build on previous social capital research by documenting the racial and class divisions in social capital creation, including in civic opportunity, participation, membership, friendship, and social support. Our research is based on a large national survey of more than 6,500 American adults. We conducted follow-up qualitative interviews with 20 survey respondents to contextualize and extend the survey’s findings. This survey’s findings meaningfully contribute to the research on Americans’ changing communal and relational lives. The educational gap has persisted—and even expanded—since we published our previous survey research, and it is the dividing line across nearly every domain of social capital we measure. We find substantial disparities by educational attainment and race: For instance, black Americans without college degrees are significantly more disconnected than every other group in American life. For Americans without degrees—particularly black Americans—the civic opportunities, responsibilities, and relationships that imbue life with meaning seem increasingly out of reach.