Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Philadelphia Ranks Top 3 Most-Neighborly Cities in U.S.!

Cue the theme song for "Mister Roger's Neighborhood!"

It's nice to know that you can depend on your neighbors when you need them, and vice versa. If you're lucky enough to have good neighbors, they can come in clutch when you really need them to. And it turns out, Philadelphia has some great neighbors!

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In a study conducted by AmeriCorps and the U.S. Census Bureau, Philadelphia was ranked as one of the Top 3 Most-Neighborly cities in the U.S. during lockdown!  Maybe we should change the city motto to "City of Neighborly Love!"

Surprisingly enough, Philly is 1 of 3 major cities that you wouldn't expect to be considered the most neighborly, but they actually are!

Here are the top 3, ranked:

1. Boston
2. Philadelphia
3. Chicago

The research reflects data collected September 2020 to 2021, when we were still in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. But even though we were still social distancing, neighborly assistance still went a long way.

According to their findings: "Nearly 51 percent of Americans or 124.7 million people informally helped their neighbors between September 2020 and 2021."

Here are some of Philadelphia's key highlights during that time:

• 1,455,123 formal volunteers contributed 99.2 million hours of service through organizations worth an estimated $2.8 billion
• 57.8% of residents informally helped others by exchanging favors with their neighbors
• 75.0% of residents had a conversation or spent time with their neighbors
• 51.6% of residents donated $25 or more to charity

I think this is pretty validating proof that even though Philadelphians can seem abrasive on the outside, we know how to look after our own. Acts of service could be considered Philly's "love language", if you will.

So, Philly! Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won't you be my neighbor?