Volunteering Statistics

The most comprehensive research on philanthropy in Australia has found that Australians and businesses are giving and volunteering more than ever before, contributing more than $11 billion in 2004. Results from the national survey of voluntary work 2006 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows some of the following key findings:

General info

• In 2006, 5.2 million people (34%) of the Australian population aged 18 years and over, participate in voluntary work.
• They contributed 713 million hours to the community, an average of 136 hours each per year or 2.6 hours per week.
• The comparison of 1995, 2000 and 2006 data reveal that volunteer rates increased from 24% to 32% and to 35% between these three time points.

By gender

• Women are more likely than men to volunteer and on average volunteer more hours over a year.
• In Australia 36% of women are volunteer compared to 32% of men.

By age

• People aged 35–44, volunteer rate is higher (43%) than any other age group, with people aged 45–54 the second highest group (39%).
• Seniors spent more time doing voluntary work than younger adults. Among those aged 65–84 years the median was 2.0 hours a week whereas the next highest median hours of 1.5 hours per week for those aged 55–64 years.

By education level

• The volunteer rate increases with the level of education attained, 45% of those with a diploma, advanced diploma, Bachelor degree or higher.
• The average weekly hour given decrease with increasing educational attainment. In this sense, Bachelor, graduate diploma, graduate certificate or above holders are most likely to volunteer but give less hours (2%) than advance diploma, diploma, certificate I–IV or volunteers they do not have non-school qualification (3%).

By employment status

• Employed people, either in full time (34%) or part time work (44%), had a higher volunteer rate than those who were unemployed (26%/) or not in the labour force(30%).
• Employed people gave on average 2.2 hours a week to voluntary work, while people not in the work force gave 3.7 hours, unemployed people gave 2.5 hours and retired people gave 4.4 hours to voluntary work.

By occupation

• Managers/administrators, and professionals (both 46%) and advanced clerical and service workers (45%) had the highest participation rates. These volunteer
  rates consistent with those of people with higher educational qualifications.

• Intermediate production and transport workers (26%) and labourers and related workers (25%) had lower volunteer rates.

By household type

• Female partners with dependent children had a volunteer rate of 50% compared with 32% for female partners without dependent children.
• Much higher volunteering rates observed among parents of school-aged children, particularly for parents in couple families. Almost two-thirds (64%) of mothers and just over one half (51%) of fathers in this situation had undertaken some voluntary work in the previous 12 months.

By location

• The ACT and Queensland had the highest proportion of volunteers with 38% whereas Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory had a 36% volunteer rate.
• The volunteer rate was 32% for capital cities overall compared with 38% outside the capital cities. South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania exhibited this pattern, but the differences were greatest in Victoria and New South Wales.

By place of birth

• Australia comprises of 36% of Australian-born volunteers and 29% of volunteers from outside Australia.
• People born in the main English-speaking countries had a higher rate of volunteering (34%) than those born in other countries (26%).

By type of organisation

• Volunteer rate was varied in number of organisation they volunteered, 62% volunteers worked for one organisation only, 25% for two, 8% for three and 4% for more than three organisations.
• Sport and physical recreation, education and training, community/welfare and religious groups, accounted for three-quarters (74%) of volunteering whereas advocacy, emergency service, environmental, animal welfare, self-development and other recreational and special interest groups constituted remaining quarter.

Volunteer involvement

• Volunteers perform a range of different tasks 48% fundraising, 31% preparing and serving food, 28% teaching/providing information, 26% administration and 23% management.
• Female volunteer involvement in preparing and serving food was higher than male whereas male involvements were more than female in repairs, maintenance and gardening and coaching and refereeing. Male and female had similar rates in management, administration, transporting people, performing/media production, lobbying, protecting the environment and other activities.
• Fundraising was the most common activity for almost all occupational groups, as well as people who were not employed.

By costs and reimbursement

• In 2006, 58% of volunteers incurred expenses only 23% advised that reimbursement for specific costs was available from the organisation.
• The proportion for which reimbursement was available was postage (37%), uniform (12%), travel (14%) and training costs (15%) and the cost of meals (15%). A further one per cent of volunteers reported receiving an honorarium to cover these costs rather than reimbursement for particular costs.

By ongoing commitment

• In 2006, 26% of volunteers had been working for one of their current types of organisations for more than 10 years and 19% had done so for between six to 10 years
• Overall 30% of volunteers in 2006 had been volunteering for five years or less.

By reason for being a volunteer

• Helping others or the community was acknowledged as a current reason for volunteering by 57% of volunteers.
• Volunteers were given as reason for personal satisfaction 44% and 36% to do something worthwhile.
• There were 22% of volunteers who gave social contact as their reason for volunteering.
• To be active and to use skills/experience each motivated 16% of volunteers.
• Learning new skills and gaining work experience were given as reasons by 11% of volunteers.

By volunteer recruitment

• First involved in voluntary work were either asked by someone (35%) or knew someone involved (29%).
• Only 5% became involved in volunteering in response to a media report or an advertisement.
• Over half of the population (52%) reported that at least one of their parents had done voluntary work.
• People who recently had some kind of active involvement in community activities were more likely to be doing voluntary work.

Typical NSW Volunteer

What is a typical NSW volunteer? The Centre for Volunteering has analysed the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Voluntary Work Report and developed this useful diagram of a typical NSW volunteer. Download the typical NSW volunteer diagram

More volunteering statistics

For more volunteering statistics read the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Voluntary Work, Australia, 2006 survey report.