25 Impressive Volunteer Stats That Will Knock Your Socks Off

Never underestimate the power of volunteers! Understanding volunteer behaviours and trends is crucial to the strength and success of impressive volunteer management programs.

The team at Rosterfy have pulled together a list of impressive volunteering stats designed to get you thinking about the ways in which you engage with your volunteers. 

The Value of Volunteering

Without volunteers, many nonprofits, types of organizations, events and sporting clubs would simply cease to exist. Through their time, talent and expertise, volunteers provide an incredible economic stimulus to the economy that needs to be seen to be believed - take a look at these impressive volunteer statistics!

1. Did you know that the estimated value of volunteer work is $25.43 USD an hour? This is equivalent to $297.5 billion USD per year. 

2. Volunteers donate an average of $1,149 in value per project at an average community commitment of 22 hours. 

3. 85% of volunteers donate to the nonprofits that they volunteer for.

4. £22.6bn - the estimated value of the contribution volunteers make to helping UK charities – that’s 1.2% of GDP! 

5. Donors who also chose to volunteer gave 56% more than those who did not volunteer. 

6. Volunteers are almost twice as likely to donate to a charity than those that don’t volunteer.

7. More than 90 countries around the world now have policies or legislation on volunteering. 

Volunteer Demographics & Volunteer Facts

In order to get the most out of your volunteer management program you need to understand the lifecycle of your volunteers and what drives their motivations to volunteer. 

8. Which country has the highest percentage of volunteer participation? Sri Lanka has the highest number of volunteers worldwide with 46% of the population choosing to volunteer. 

9. Women volunteer at higher rates (27.8%) than men (21.8%). 

10. Women are more likely to have volunteered for more than 10 years (43.0% of female volunteers compared to 32.9% of males). 

11. People aged 35-44 and 45-54 are most likely to volunteer (28.9% and 28% respectively) while 20-24 year olds have the lowest rates (18.4%).

12. Interestingly, working parents have a higher rate of volunteering: mothers volunteer at a rate of 43.2% and working mothers at 46.7%, with fathers at 35.7% and working fathers at 36.6%. 

13. The volunteering rate in 2014 was higher for people who had obtained a Bachelor degree or above. 

14. Those in professional occupations are more likely to volunteer than those in non-professional occupations: 23% of professionals and managers, versus 16% of labourers and machinery operators. 

15. People who work part time are more likely to volunteer (38%) than those who work full time (30%), are retired (27%) or not in the labour force for a different reason (30%).

16. 61% of people volunteered for one organisation only, 24% for two and 15% for three or more. 

17. How many hours does the average person volunteer? Volunteers on average spend an incredible 52 hours per year volunteering their time. 

By better understanding volunteer trends and demographics, it’s time to implement your recruitment strategy. Don’t know where to start? Why not check out our Guide to Implementing a Volunteer Recruitment Plan to help you get started. 

Youth Volunteer Statistics

18. Millennial generation volunteers (born in the 1980s and '90s) have increased by more than 6% since 2016. 

19. Further to this, millennials who frequently participate in workplace volunteer activities are more likely to be proud, loyal and satisfied employees, than those who rarely or never volunteer.

Motivations to volunteer

Volunteers choose to donate their time for a myriad of reasons. Understanding volunteer behaviours helps organizations to tailor their recruitment strategy and to shape roles accordingly.

20. The top three motivations for volunteering include:

1. 1. I wanted to improve things/help people – 46%
   2. The cause was important to me – 31%
   3. I had spare time to do it – 25% 

21. The most common types of organizations with the highest percentage of volunteers were religious organizations (32%). Sport, hobby, culture or arts groups ranked second (25.70%). Educational groups ranked third (19.21%). 

Health Benefits of Volunteering Statistics

Alongside the more obvious economic benefits of volunteering there are a host of social, mental and physical benefits to volunteering. It might even help you live longer!

22. Volunteering connects individuals with their community, which can lower the mortality rate by 2.7%!

23. 25% of people with higher rates of volunteering (more than five times a year) say volunteering has helped them lose weight (20% overall). 

24. 77% of volunteers say their mental health improved, with just over half (53%) saying it had improved their physical health also. 

25. Compared to people who didn’t volunteer, people who have volunteered in the past year said they were more satisfied with their lives and rated their overall health as better. Additionally, the researchers found that people who volunteered more frequently experienced greater benefits. Those who volunteered at least once a month reported better mental health than participants who volunteered infrequently or not at all. 

Enjoyed these volunteer stats? Why not check out Rosterfy’s blog for more great content on how to best engage with your volunteers. 

References

1. Independent Sector
2. Vollie
3. Global Trends in Giving Report
4. ICEAW
5. CCS Fundraising
6. The Corporation for National & Community Service.
7. UN Volunteers
8. Statista
9. NP Source
10. Volunteering Victoria
11. NP Source
12. Corporations for National Community Service
13. AIHW
14. Volunteering New Zealand
15. AIHW
16. Volunteering Victoria
17. NP Source
18. Corporations for National Community Service
19. Deloitte’s 2017 Volunteerism Survey
20. Third Sector
21. Corporations for National Community Service
22. Track it Forward
23. Department for Social Responsibility
24. NCVO
25. Journal of Happiness Studies