Volunteers is an Australia's welfare topic

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 (‘formal 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. 

National Strategy for Volunteering 2023–2033
 
The National Strategy for Volunteering was funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services, led by Volunteering Australia and co-designed with a broad range of stakeholders involved in volunteering (Volunteering Australia 2023). It provides a strategic framework for enabling safe, supported and sustainable volunteering (Volunteering Australia 2023). It sets out desired outcomes for volunteering in Australia over the next 10 years, and includes the following:

  • a vision for volunteering to be achieved over the National Strategy for Volunteering’s ten-year timeframe 
  • 3 focus areas, which includes aims of the National Strategy for Volunteering
  • 11 strategic objectives, which detail the work required to achieve the vision and aim
  • a timeline for phased implementation (Volunteering Australia 2023). 

For more information, see The National Strategy and Action Plan 2024–2027.

Data about people in Australia who volunteer are primarily drawn from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) General Social Survey (GSS). The most recent GSS was conducted in 2020 and every 4 years from 2002 to 2019. 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 aged 15 years and over participated in voluntary work through an organisation. The proportion of females (26%) who participated in voluntary work was slightly higher than males (23%), and the proportion of people volunteering fluctuated with age. People aged 40–54 (31%) were most likely to have participated in unpaid voluntary work through an organisation 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

The horizontal bar chart shows the highest proportion of people volunteering through an organisation are aged 40–54, compared with people aged 25–39 for informal volunteers. 

The horizontal bar chart shows the highest proportion of people volunteering through an organisation are aged 40–54, compared with people aged 25–39 for informal volunteers. 

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

Couples with children (30%) were more likely to volunteer than other family compositions, such as single individuals (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 (43%) and females (41%) had been volunteering for that period of time.

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.

Overall, the proportion of Australians who participate in voluntary work has decreased since 2006. 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 (34%) and 2010 (36%). This progressively decreased in subsequent years with 31% of people volunteering in 2014, 29% in 2019 and 25% in 2020 (Figure 2). 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

The line chart shows the proportion of males who undertook voluntary work decreased the most between 2019 and 2020 (from 29% to 23%). 


Source: ABS 2021.

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 2021).

Data collected by the Australian National University from 2019 to 2024 showed that volunteering fell during the COVID-19 pandemic and has not since returned to pre-pandemic levels. The proportion of adults who had volunteered in the previous 12 months declined from 36% in 2019 to 27% in April 2022. This equates to around 1.86 million fewer volunteers at the start of 2022 compared to levels prior to the pandemic. Whilst there was a slight increase in volunteering between 2021 and 2022, volunteering remained well below the pre-pandemic rate (Biddle et al 2022). By April 2023, levels of volunteering were well above the pandemic low of 33% but were still significantly lower than prior to the pandemic (Biddle and Gray 2023). The latest data from October 2024 showed a decline to 28%.

Key data gaps and data improvement activities

The latest GSS referenced throughout this page was conducted in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, where there was no face-to-face follow up for households that did not complete the survey. As such, there was a higher than usual proportion of non-response (38%).

More broadly, notable data gaps identified in the National Strategy for Volunteering include but are not limited to: 

  • measuring and understanding the volunteer experience
  • measuring and understanding the predictors of effective volunteering
  • volunteering and inclusion (people with disability, LGBTQIA+ people, and other priority populations)
  • the relationship between volunteering and gender
  • volunteering and power dynamics
  • exploitation and misconduct in volunteering
  • volunteering in regional, rural and remote Australia
  • volunteering in First Nations communities
  • volunteering on boards and committees
  • the role of volunteering in addressing climate change
  • volunteering in grassroots organisations and service clubs
  • family volunteering (Volunteering Australia 2023). 

The GSS was previously conducted in 2019 and every 4 years from 2002 to 2014. As part of the action plan to address priorities from the National Strategy for Volunteering, the ABS will resume regular collection and publication of data on volunteering through the GSS (Volunteering Australia 2024). This will produce policy-relevant official data on volunteering, updated to align with the Strategic Objectives of the National Strategy for Volunteering, collected and published annually. The revised GSS will include a module on volunteering which is being updated to reflect the contemporary data needs of the volunteering sector in the context of the National Strategy for Volunteering. Further, the GSS will be expanded and updated from 2025 onwards to better report on measures for reporting on Australia’s wellbeing framework: Measuring What Matters - of which participation in volunteering is an indicator. This enhancement will strengthen our understanding of volunteering and enable changes to be monitored more effectively over time.

Where do I go for more information?

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