D.C. residents volunteer more than their neighbors in Virginia and Maryland, according to a new national study.

The District ranked seventh in the nation for average volunteer hours per resident, at 47 hours in 2007. Maryland took the 10th spot for volunteer hours, with 45.9 hours, and Virginia lagged at 23rd place with 40.1 hours per resident.

Still, the Washington-area jurisdictions dragged behind half of the states in their volunteerism levels, according to the study from the public-private Corporation for National and Community Service released Monday.

D.C. ranked 20th for its volunteerism rate, at 31.3 percent of residents, while Maryland took 28th place with 28.5 percent and Virginia took 29th place with 28.3 percent. Utah topped the country at 43.9 percent, while Nevada lagged at the bottom at 17.7 percent.

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“Everyone who lives here is confronted with the need in the city and has access to organizations that are trying to effect change in the area,” said Billy Fettweis, volunteer services coordinator at Greater D.C. Cares.

Volunteer opportunities are more easily accessible in an urban area, he added. “It’s a very easy city to get around.”

The national volunteer rate is at a five-year low, and local volunteer agencies have seen similar declines.

Nikki Nicholau, director of the office of volunteerism and community service at VirginiaCorps, attributed the decrease to the weak economy.

“When people become concerned about their own economic well-being, while they may still have concern for others, they work longer hours and they can’t drive as much [to volunteer] because of rising gas prices,” she said.

Directors of local volunteer agencies blamed several factors for the region’s low rate of volunteerism, including longer commutes, which leave less time for volunteering, and transient populations in urban areas.

Several directors cautioned that the statistics may not accurately reflect how much time people are giving to others, especially if they are chipping in unofficially by helping out a neighbor or working through local-level clubs.

“That’s probably a vast underrepresentation,” Fettweis said of the statistics.

“Volunteering is changing,” Nicholau said. “After 9/11 and after [Hurricane] Katrina, it was more organized volunteer efforts responding to that sort of thing. Now we’re having more volunteering on a neighborhood level.”

Local nonprofit directors emphasized the importance of professionals offering pro bono services such as consulting and Web design, a practice that has emerged over the past decade.

“A lot of times people think of volunteering as ‘I served in the homeless shelter or painted in the school,’ ” Fettweis said. “People are looking to expand how they view volunteerism.”