About Peace Corp

Many of our friends and family don’t have a good understanding of what the Peace Corps does. To be honest, we didn’t either until we started investigating it. I remember earlier in life thinking that the Peace Corp was an army of sorts that travelled the world enforcing peace by military strength (how dumb and counter-intuitive is that?).

The Peace Corp dates back to 1961 when it was put in place by John F. Kennedy. Since then, nearly 200,000 Americans have served in over 139 countries.

The Peace Corps mission statement has three goals:

• To help the people of interested countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained workers
• To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served
• To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans

If you are interested in learning more, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Corps or http://www.peacecorps.gov//

History

Peace Corps officially established:

March 1, 1961

Total number of Volunteers and trainees to date:

Nearly 200,000

Total number of countries served:

139

Volunteers

Current number of Volunteers and Trainees:

7,671

Gender:

60% female, 40% male

Marital Status:

93% single, 7% married

Minorities:

16% of Peace Corps Volunteers

Average Age:

28

Volunteers over age 50:

7%

Education:

89% have at least an undergraduate degree

Countries and Projects

Current number of countries served:

77 countries

Volunteers by Work Area

• Education: 35%
• Health & HIV/AIDS: 22%
• Business Development: 15%
• Environment: 14%
• Agriculture: 5%
• Youth Development: 5%
• Other: 4%

Where Volunteers Serve

• Africa: 37%
• Latin America: 24%
• Eastern Europe/Central Asia: 20%
• Asia: 7%
• North Africa/Middle East: 4%
• Pacific Islands: 4%
• The Caribbean: 4%

For 2007 Demographics Statistics, click here.