Volunteers

Volunteers substantially benefit their communities through providing important services to others. They may also bring new insights to the organisations or groups for which they volunteer, increase efficiencies and improve effectiveness.

Volunteering broadens people’s networks and professional skills, and serves as an indicator of wellbeing and social cohesion. It also has links to the economic and health status of a nation. By volunteering, people can become more outwardly focused, which may strengthen social interactions or even reduce anxiety (Department of Health 2019).

People can volunteer formally through an organisation (‘volunteering’), or informally through the provision of unpaid work and support to non-household members, excluding family members (‘informal volunteering’). Informal volunteers and informal carers may be involved in similar forms of unpaid work, however, while some informal carers care for people living in the same household, informal volunteers provide unpaid support to people who are not family and do not live in the same household. For more information, see Informal carers.

Data about people in Australia who volunteer are primarily drawn from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2020 General Social Survey (GSS). In this survey, volunteering is defined as providing unpaid help (time, service or skills) to an organisation or group, excluding work done overseas (ABS 2018).

Who volunteers?

In 2020, just over an estimated 5 million people participated in voluntary work through an organisation. The proportion of females who participated in voluntary work was slightly higher than males (26% and 23%, respectively), and the proportion of people volunteering fluctuated with age. People aged 40–54 were most likely to have participated in unpaid voluntary work through an organisation (31%) followed by people aged 70 and over (28%) (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Proportion of people aged 15 and over who undertook voluntary work (last 12 months) or informal voluntary work (last 4 weeks), by age and sex, 2020

Source: ABS 2021a.

The proportion of people who participated in voluntary work in 2020 was higher among people who had attained a Bachelor degree or above or an Advanced diploma (31% and 25%, respectively), compared with those whose highest qualification was a primary or secondary school qualification (18%).

Couples with children were more likely to volunteer than other family compositions, such as single individuals (30% compared with 22%).

How often and where do people volunteer?

Volunteers in Australia are generous with their time. In 2020, 34% of people who volunteered in the previous 12 months had contributed 21 to 99 hours during that period, and 28% contributed 100 or more hours. Just over 2 in 5 (42%) volunteers had been volunteering for more than 10 years. A similar proportion of males and females had been volunteering for that period of time (43% and 41%, respectively).

In 2020, two-thirds (66%) of people who volunteered did so for one organisation, 23% for 2 organisations and 10% for 3 or more. The most common types of organisations were:

• sports and recreation (31%)
• religious groups (23%)
• education and training (19%)
• community/ethnic groups (16%).

The most common reason for people’s first involvement with unpaid voluntary work was that they knew someone involved or were asked to volunteer.

Informal volunteering

In addition to voluntary work for organisations, people may participate in informal volunteering, which is the provision of unpaid work and support to non-household members, excluding family members. Examples of informal volunteering include providing transport or running errands, unpaid childcare for a friend or neighbour, and providing emotional support. Almost one-third (32%) of the Australian population aged 15 and over participated in informal volunteering in the 4 weeks prior to the 2020 GSS.

Unpaid work undertaken for anyone within a person’s household falls outside the scope of informal volunteering and is referred to as informal caring (ABS 2018). Formal volunteering is distinct from informal caring, but informal volunteering can be closely related to informal caring. For more information on informal caring, see Informal carers.

Trends in volunteering

Overall, the proportion of Australians who participate in voluntary work has fluctuated over time.

More than 1 in 3 people aged 18 and over reported undertaking unpaid voluntary work through an organisation in the last 12 months in 2006 and 2010 (34% and 36%, respectively). This progressively decreased in subsequent years with 31% of people volunteering in 2014, 29% in 2019 and 25% in 2020 (Figure 2), this decline in voluntary work may have been affected by COVID-19 in recent years, see Impact of COVID-19 on volunteers. In contrast, informal volunteering rates – only measured since 2019 – remained steady. One-third (33%) of people aged 15 and over participated in informal volunteering in the 4 weeks prior to the survey in 2019, compared with 32% in 2020.

Figure 2: Proportion of people aged 18 and over who undertook voluntary work in the last 12 months, by sex, 2006 to 2020

Source: ABS 2021a.

The decrease in people volunteering through an organisation reflects the broader changes noted in the 2020 GSS: there has been a decrease in the time and opportunity that Australians have for recreation and leisure, and social and community interaction (ABS 2014). Between 2010 and 2020, the proportion of people involved in social, community support and civic/political groups has decreased (ABS 2021a).

Where do I go for more information?

For the latest data and more information on volunteers in Australia, see:

• ABS General Social Survey
• Volunteering Australia.