Statistics

Sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 'Voluntary Work Survey' 2006.  View the full report on the ABS website here

Who volunteers?

  • 5.4 million adult Australians (34%) 
  • Slightly more women (36%) than men (32%)
  • 44% of those aged 35 to 44 yrs volunteer, the highest participation level of any age group
  • 34% of people in full-time and 44% of people in part-time work

Where do they live?

  • QLD and the ACT have the highest volunteering rates at 38%
  • 36% of the population volunteers in Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory
  • The volunteering rate in rural and regional areas is higher (38%) than in the cities (32%) 

How many hours do they volunteer?

  • 46% contributed less than 50 hours in the past 12 months
  • 8% contributed at least 400 hours in the past 12 months
  • A median of 56 hours per year or 1.1 hours per week

What do they do?


Four most common types of agencies in which people volunteer:

  • Sport / physical recreation (26%)
  • Community / welfare (19%)
  • Religious groups (17%)
  • Education / training (10%)

Four most common volunteering activities:

  • Fundraising (48%)
  • Preparing & serving food (31%)
  • Teaching / providing information (28%)
  • Administration (26%)

Why do they volunteer?

  • To help others or the community (57%)
  • Personal satisfaction (44%)
  • To do something worthwhile (36%)
  • Social contact (22%)
  • To be active / use skills (16%)

How much is volunteer time worth?

  • While more people are volunteering, many are doing so for less time
  • 713 million hours were volunteered in 2006
  • Volunteer time is currently valued at $22.08 per hour (Ironmonger 2006, p.8) but a new update puts it at $24.09.
  • Volunteering contributes approximately $15.7 billion to the Australian economy
  • In 2006, 542,000 people volunteered 71 million hours in Western Australia
  • This equals approximately $1.6 billion to the WA economy

2008 National Survey of Volunteering Issues


Conducted by Volunteering Australia the results for WA can be downloaded here. The file is in two parts, the first contains responses from WA volunteers and the second contains responses from WA volunteer involving organisations.

Download the 2008 National Survey of Volunteering Issues (WA part only)