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VOLUNTEERING/
BY COUNTRY
source: www.cev.be/facts&figures.htm
www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/
FactSheets/FS_Volunteering2.pdf
www.volunteeringaustralia.org/
docs/Nat_Agenda.pdf
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In recent years, efforts at measuring volunteering have produced widely different estimates, largely because the methods employed to measure volunteering differ from country to country…- according to the only study in Austria about the amount and scope of volunteer work 51% of the population of Austria worked in 2001 as a volunteer and the informal support in the community was one of the most important activities; (1)
- according to the Second Survey on Volunteering, in 2004 a total number of 36% of the citizens in Germany devote time to some form of volunteering and assume longer term tasks and duties in clubs, societies, initiatives or projects. As compared to 34% actively involved citizens in 1999, this number shows a slight increase of 2%. If the average voluntary activity is applied to a total of 63 million citizens above the age of 14 this means approximately 22 million German citizens were involved in some kind of volunteering in 1999;
- in The Netherlands, according to the Trend Report on Volunteering released in November 2002, between 25% and 37% of the population has been volunteering in 2002. According to the figures of the Social and Cultural Planning Bureau, the bulk of volunteering is done by people of age 35–50, with a decreasing percentage of young people (since 1995 by 22%). In 2001, about 24% of the 500 local governments had developed a policy on voluntary work;
- according to the “Association pour le Volontariat”, and based on statistics produced by the University of Liége, there were 1,5 million active volunteers across the whole of Belgium in 1999 (approximately 20% of the total population). In addition, the number of new, non-profit associations (associations sans but lucratif – a.s.b.l.) has increased 8 times over the last 30 years, suggesting that the number of volunteers has also significantly increased;
- in the United Kingdom, in 2001 the Home Office – the part of the UK government with responsibility for volunteering – completed a Citizenship survey. It found that 39% of the population had volunteered (a considerable drop: the percentage was 51% in 1991 and 48% in 1997). According to 1999 official statistics, 22 million adults are involved in formal volunteering each year. 90 million hours of formal voluntary work takes place each week. The economic value of formal volunteering has been calculated to be in the region of £40 billion (about €58 billion or US$ 70 billion) per year. The total public sector support for volunteering is estimated to be in the region of £400 million (about €580 million or US$ 700 million) per year. For every £1 volunteer involving organisation spend supporting volunteering they can expect a notional payback of up to 14 times that (equivalent to about €20 or US$ 24.5);
- in France, there were 7.9 million volunteers in 1990 (19% of French over 18 years); in 2003, they become 10 million or, according to another survey, 12.5 million (27% of French over 18 years). Figures from September 2002 from the Centre National du Volontariat suggest that there were 14,5 millions active volunteers in France, at that time.
- in Spain, according to a national survey on solidarity attitudes (2001), most of Spanish population (74%) consider that engagement in volunteering shows interest in social problems and is therefore seen as a positive trend. Accordingly, 79% of Spanish people value the tasks and activities being developed by NGOs as ‘very good’ or ‘good’. It should be stressed that although an NGO is not a voluntary organisation in a strict sense, in Spain in 2001, 78% of the people working in social action NGOs were volunteers (the Spanish Third Sector employs about 200,000 paid workers and 734,000 volunteers);
- in Canada, the 2000 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (NSGVP) showed that 29% of people aged 15 to 24 years volunteered, a jump from 17% in 1987. However, this was a decrease from 33% for the same age group in 1997. This decrease in young people’s volunteering rates (in 2000) has been attributed in part to the improved employment status of young people at that time, which draws attention to the relationship between young people’s volunteering and their employment status; (2)
- in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US Department of Labor, about 64.5 million people did volunteer work at least once from September 2003 to September 2004. The proportion of the population who volunteered during the year held steady at 28.8%;
- in Australia, in 2000, nearly 4.4 million people over the age of 18 years are volunteers, representing an impressive 32% of the civilian population of the same age. There is an almost equal representation of women and men. In 1995 an estimated 3,189,900 people volunteered representing 24% of the Australian population over the age of 18;
Volunteering in developing countries and transitional economies: a few examples…- volunteers play an unusually small part in the workforce of the Latin American civil society sector, accounting for 0.7% of the economically active population on average. This may be related to the role that civil society organisations play in this region. Even with the value of volunteering included in the revenue base of the region’s civil society organisations, fees account for 2/3 of the support. By contrast, government support - at 15% of the revenue - is unusually low, making it difficult for civil society organisations to extend their reach to those in greatest need; (3)
- a considerably different civil society reality is evident in the countries of southern and eastern Africa (South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda). The civil society sector appears quite robust in these countries, engaging as much as 3.4% of the economically active population in South Africa and averaging 2.5% overall, well above the developing country average. Volunteers comprise over half of the civil society workforce in this region, perhaps reflecting the strong traditions of informal ties along tribal and village lines that have long characterised the region; (3)
- the scale of the African civil society sector remains constrained, however, by the limited financial support it has available. Particularly notable, as in other developing regions, has been the limited availability of public sector funding, which has played so significant a role in the growth of civil society organisations in the developed world. Only 25% of civil society organisation revenue comes from government in the African countries, though here gross variations are evident among countries, with South African organisations recording over 40% of their funding from public sources and Kenyan organisations recording less than 5%. In all these countries, however, private philanthropy surges into first place, as a source of revenue once the value of volunteer time is included. (3)
- volunteering has flourished over the past years in Poland. In 2004 around 5.4 million Poles, which is 18.3% of the population, engaged in a voluntary activity compared with 10% in 2001, an increase of 8.3%;
- in Hong Kong, according to a study carried out in 2001 by the Agency for Volunteer Service (AVS), 62% of the population over 15 years old has one way or the other volunteered in the 12 months preceding the survey. (4)
(1) Badelt, Hollerweger 2001: 7-8 [ www.mem-volunteering.net/download/MEM-VOL_syntesis_report_english.pdf]
(2) [ www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/71-542-XIE/71-542-XIE00001.pdf]
(3) Salamon L. M., Sokolowski, S. W., and List R., “Global Civil Society. An Overview”, Center for Civil Society Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, 2003. [www.jhu.edu/~ccss/pubs/pdf/globalciv.pdf]
(4) [www.iavenews.org/documents/184.doc]
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