But what are the factors that promote civic engagement? Is education an important determinant? Does having a college degree make one more likely to volunteer at a local food bank or petition a local lawmaker than merely having a high school diploma? What role does race or ethnicity play? Are men or women more likely to volunteer? Now that we’ve looked at various indicators of civic health among the Millennials, let’s examine factors that may be associated with increased levels of engagement within the cohort of Floridians aged 18 to 29. We’ll also compare them to their elders.

We’re looking at four characteristics:
• Education
• Family income
• Race/Ethnicity
• Gender


Education
There is clearly a strong correlation between educational attainment and civic participation. Among the attributes measured, education has the most effect on voter registration and turnout. That said, there is a huge gap among Millennials between signing up to vote and actually doing it. Overall, Florida’s Millennials are still clearly less engaged than older Floridians with the same college experience. and while the increased emphasis on community service in high schools in Florida clearly has a strong impact on volunteering among Millennials, that effect seems to dissipate as they move through college into adulthood. In our survey of Millennials, we classify education status as:
1. those who are not currently enrolled in college and who have had no college experience;
2. those who are currently enrolled in high school;
3. those who are currently enrolled in college;
4. those who are either college graduates or who began college but are no longer enrolled.

Among those over 30, we simply distinguish between those who had college experience (college graduates or some college credit) and those who did not have college experience (no high school diploma or only graduated from high school). figure 5 shows that the effects of education were most visible for Millennials when it came to registration and turnout. That effect was most evident among those who had graduated from college or who had some college experience rather than currently being enrolled in college. it may also reflects life cycle effects, as those Millennials who had graduated from college likely will be among the older cohorts of the generation.

As figure 6 shows, those aged 30 and over with college experience were only six percentage points more likely to be registered than their Millennial generation counterparts. This underscores the point that education is the major factor in reducing the “costs” of registering to vote. however, life cycle effects do appear to be at work when it comes to voting. Millennials with college experience were 18 percentage points less likely to turn out to vote in 2010. Thus, factors other than the barriers to voter registration—likely factors that affect Millennials in all states—explain the lower turnout among younger Floridians when compared to their older counterparts.

Perhaps the most interesting finding in figure 5 was the effect of education on group participation and volunteering. for these indicators, It was the Millennials currently enrolled in high school who were the most engaged. Indeed, the volunteer rate for Millennials in high school was only three percentage points less than the rate for their elders. This might be a reflection of high school courses or scholarship requirements that stipulate a certain number of hours of volunteer activity or group participation, or the fact that for many high school students volunteering is a “resume booster” for college admissions. The drop in volunteering as a student moves into college also might be a function of older students working full- or part-time jobs. They simply may not have the time to devote to volunteering. Whatever the cause, policy makers and community leaders should study what efforts might help retain or foster the enthusiasm for engagement among Millennials after they leave high school.

One important point: Millennials with no college experience are among the most marginalized when it comes to civic engagement. Less than 10 percent of this group voted in 2010. In fact, with the exception of exchanging favors with neighbors, fewer than one out of every 10 Millennials with no college experience volunteer or engaged in the various activities measured. Thus the people who likely are the most marginalized economically—few well-paid jobs await those with just a high school diploma—are further isolated from the political order. If Florida is to have an engaged citizenry, then education has an absolutely pivotal role to play. Given the low levels of engagement exhibited by those aged 30 and above with no college experience, it appears that there are few other institutions—if any—to rival universities and colleges in contributing toward the skills necessary to be an active and engaged citizen.


Household income
One feature is fairly constant across all modes of civic engagement and across generations: the less affluent tend to be the most marginalized in terms of their levels of engagement. That merely underscores the importance of better integrating these Floridians into the civic life of the Sunshine State. Figures 7 and 8 show the effect of household income on civic engagement among Millennials. Of course, for those aged 29 and under, this is capturing, in many instances, the effect of parental income on the level of engagement, rather than the individual’s own income. Indeed, this may explain why among Millennials the effects of income on civic engagement levels are rather uneven. Only in terms of registering, voting and group participation was there a noticeable difference by income. It would appear that any socio-economic differences in civic engagement are more evident among those aged 30 and over.


Race/ethnicity
Race and ethnicity have been found to be a leading cause of variations in the level of civic engagement nationally, with minorities exhibiting lower levels of civic engagement. But these distinctions are beginning to blur and even disappear among the younger generation of floridians. We distinguish the civic engagement patterns of Whites (non-hispanic), African Americans (non-hispanic) and Latinos. Among Hispanics, we further distinguish between those of Cuban and non-Cuban background.

As figure 9 shows, it is of great interest that among Millennials, whites are generally not more likely to be civically engaged than minorities. That’s a crucial and promising finding in a “majority-minority” state like Florida. Whites only outperformed on one of the three measures of non-electoral political engagement (contacting or visiting a public official. Indeed, on the item about contacting or visiting a public official, Whites were the only group of Millennials to have engaged in this action. in terms of electoral engagement, African Americans were the group most likely to have registered to vote in 2010, and in terms of voter turnout, Cubans were the group with the highest turnout. Non-Cuban Hispanics were the group least likely to be civically engaged, with the exception of doing favors for neighbors. This in many ways reflects an historic pattern of behavior for newly arrived immigrants. The question is whether the institutions exist to better integrate this group into the civic life of Florida.

The effect of race/ethnicity on civic engagement for Millennials stands in contrast to that exhibited by those aged 30 and over (figure 10). Here, Whites were the group that was most engaged across every indicator. Whether life cycle effects will eventually produce the same patterns for Millennials is uncertain. If it does not, then generational replacement will likely result in the disappearance of racial differences evident in civic engagement, especially as Millennials as a group are more diverse in term of race and ethnicity than those aged 30 and over.

Gender
The sizeable gains that women have made in educational attainment, earnings and employment over the last two or three generations have largely eroded gender differences in civic engagement in the United States. Figure 11 demonstrates that, to a large extent, gender differences in patterns of civic engagement have largely disappeared. Indeed, to the extent that they exist at all among Millennials, it is women who engage at higher rates, although the differences are quite small. The most noticeable gender gaps were for volunteering (7%), registration (5%), group participation (4%) and do favors for neighbors (5%). As figure 12 shows, these differences were not as great among those aged 30 and over: Indeed there was no gender gap on civic engagement greater than 3 percentage points among older Floridians.