Gonzalez said he would not be surprised if the region was already logging one million volunteer hours annually, but there has never been a tracking system in place before now.

A report released Saturday looking at the “civic health” of Missouri shows that the state ranks 15th in the country in volunteerism, with 30 percent of residents participating compared with 27 percent nationwide. The St. Louis region does even better, at 32 percent.

The region also fares better than the rest of the country in donating to charity, with 57 percent of residents doing so, compared with 51 percent in the U.S. overall.

The report was put together by a coalition of professors from six Missouri universities, including Washington University, St. Louis University and the University of Missouri-St. Louis along with the National Conference on Citizenship.

Mark Tranel, director of the Public Policy Research Center at UMSL, said the report was “an important first step” in measuring the civic health of the state and the region, and would be used to encourage more community engagement.