Unpaid community work is widespread but unevenly distributed. In England, 54% of adults aged 16 and over reported formal or informal volunteering at least once in the previous year in 2024/25. The same survey found that 33% volunteered at least monthly, while international estimates suggest that about 2.1 billion working-age people volunteer during a typical four-week period.
Contents
- Headline volunteering rates
- Who takes part in formal volunteering
- Who takes part in informal volunteering
- Combined participation and local differences
- Why people volunteer and what limits participation
- The economic and global scale of unpaid work
Headline volunteering rates
The Community Life Survey 2024/25 distinguishes between formal and informal volunteering. Formal volunteering means giving unpaid help to groups or clubs. Informal volunteering means giving unpaid help to non-relatives. Both measures cover adults aged 16 and over in England, and the frequency matters: monthly participation is a stricter measure than taking part at least once during the previous year.
| Measure in England | At least monthly | At least once in previous year |
|---|---|---|
| Formal volunteering | 17% | 28% |
| Informal volunteering | 24% | 44% |
| Any formal or informal volunteering | 33% | 54% |
These figures come from the Community Life Survey 2024/25: Volunteering and charitable giving. The difference between the monthly and annual measures shows that occasional unpaid community work is much more common than regular participation. Informal volunteering also had higher reported participation than formal volunteering on both measures.
The longer formal-volunteering series shows substantial movement over time. Formal volunteering was 27% in 2013/14, the high point since push-to-web collection began. It was 23% in 2019/20, before the pandemic-period decline, and 16% in 2023/24, the low point before the 2024/25 estimate of 17%. These are survey estimates for England and should be read as measurements for their stated years, rather than as a continuous measure of every form of unpaid help.
Who takes part in formal volunteering
Formal volunteering rates varied across demographic and socioeconomic groups in 2024/25. By sexual orientation, monthly participation was 22% among adults in the “other sexual orientation” category and 20% among bisexual adults. It was 17% among gay or lesbian adults and 17% among heterosexual or straight adults.
The survey also recorded differences by ethnic group. Monthly formal volunteering was reported by 22% of Black African adults and 22% of White Irish adults. The rate was 10% among adults from any other Asian background, 13% among adults from any other White background, and 13% among Chinese adults. Pakistani adults recorded 14%, while Indian adults recorded 15%.
Religious affiliation was associated with a broad range of reported rates. Monthly formal volunteering was 31% among Jewish adults, 23% among adults in the “any other religion” category and 20% among Buddhist adults. The rate was 20% among Christian adults, 14% among adults with no religion, 14% among Hindu adults and 15% among Muslim adults.
Occupation and deprivation showed another clear pattern. Monthly formal volunteering was reported by 21% of adults in higher managerial, administrative or professional occupations, compared with 16% in intermediate occupations. The rate was 13% among adults who had never worked or were long-term unemployed and 11% among adults in routine and manual occupations.
Place also mattered. Formal volunteering was reported by 23% of adults in the least deprived decile of England, compared with 11% in the most deprived decile. The rate was 21% among rural adults and 16% among urban adults. These comparisons describe differences in reported participation; they do not by themselves establish why the rates differ.
Who takes part in informal volunteering
Informal volunteering was more common than formal volunteering overall, but participation still varied by age. Monthly informal volunteering was reported by 29% of adults aged 65–74, 28% of adults aged 16–24 and 28% of adults aged 75 and over. The corresponding rates were 21% for adults aged 25–34, 22% for those aged 35–49 and 23% for those aged 50–64.
Disabled adults reported a monthly informal-volunteering rate of 29%, compared with 23% among non-disabled adults. Female adults recorded 26%, compared with 22% among male adults.
The survey’s sexual-orientation categories also showed differences. Monthly informal volunteering was reported by 36% of adults in the “other sexual orientation” category, 31% of bisexual adults and 28% of gay or lesbian adults. The rate among heterosexual or straight adults was 24%.
Reported rates varied across ethnic groups. The highest listed rate was 39% among White Gypsy or Irish Traveller adults, followed by 34% among mixed White and Black African adults and 32% among Black African adults. Monthly informal volunteering was 30% among mixed White and Black Caribbean adults, 30% among Arab adults, 29% among White Irish adults and 28% among Pakistani adults. It was 21% among adults from any other Asian background and 20% among Chinese adults.
Religious groups also recorded different levels of participation. Monthly informal volunteering was reported by 33% of adults in the “any other religion” category, 31% of Buddhist adults and 31% of Jewish adults. Christian adults and Muslim adults each recorded 27%, while adults with no religion recorded 22%.
Occupation differences were narrower than for formal volunteering. Monthly informal volunteering was reported by 26% of adults who had never worked or were long-term unemployed, 25% in higher managerial, administrative or professional occupations, 24% in intermediate occupations and 23% in routine and manual occupations. Rural adults recorded 25%, compared with 24% among urban adults.
Combined participation and local differences
Looking at formal or informal volunteering together gives a broader view of unpaid community work. Monthly participation was 40% among adults aged 65–74, 37% among those aged 75 and over and 36% among adults aged 16–24. The rate was 27% among adults aged 25–34 and 31% among those aged 35–49.
Disabled adults reported 36% monthly participation, compared with 33% among non-disabled adults. Female adults recorded 35%, compared with 31% among male adults. By sexual orientation, the rates were 45% for adults in the “other sexual orientation” category, 42% for bisexual adults, 37% for gay or lesbian adults and 33% for heterosexual or straight adults.
Among the listed ethnic groups, monthly combined participation was 40% for Black African adults, 40% for mixed White and Black African adults, 39% for White Irish adults and 37% for mixed White and Black Caribbean adults. The rate was 24% among adults from any other Asian background, 27% among Chinese adults, 30% among Indian adults and 30% among adults from any other White background.
Occupation and deprivation remained associated with participation. Monthly combined volunteering was reported by 37% of adults in higher managerial, administrative or professional occupations, 33% in intermediate occupations, 32% among adults who had never worked or were long-term unemployed and 29% in routine and manual occupations. The rate was 37% in the least deprived decile and 29% in the most deprived decile.
The rural-urban gap was also visible in the combined measure: 37% of rural adults and 32% of urban adults reported volunteering at least monthly. Across English local authorities, the rate ranged from 47% in West Devon to 15% in the City of London in 2024/25. Local-authority figures therefore span a 32-percentage-point range, but the survey reports the endpoints rather than a single explanation for the variation.
Why people volunteer and what limits participation
Among adults in England who formally volunteered at least once in the previous year, the most frequently reported motivation in 2024/25 was wanting to improve things or help people, cited by 46%. Having spare time was cited by 31%, while 29% said the cause was really important to them. Wanting to meet people or make friends was cited by 26%.
Two motivations were each reported by 23%: using existing skills and meeting a community need. Helping people was part of their life philosophy for 20% of these annual formal volunteers. These responses describe reasons among people who had already volunteered at least once; they are not estimates of the whole adult population.
Time pressures were the leading reported barrier among adults who did not formally volunteer at least monthly. Work commitments were cited by 51%, other spare-time activities by 32% and childcare responsibilities by 22%. Because respondents could report more than one reason, these percentages should not be added together.
The economic and global scale of unpaid work
Unpaid community work sits within a wider economy of unpaid household services. The Office for National Statistics Household Satellite Account, UK: 2023 valued all unpaid household services at £1.2 trillion in 2014 and £1.7 trillion in 2023, measured in current prices. The value equalled 62% of GDP in 2014 and 61% of GDP in 2023, after peaking at 66% of GDP in 2020.
Within that account, UK volunteering hours fell by over 40% between 2014 and 2023. Volunteering was the only unpaid household service in the account with a decreasing output-volume trend across the full series. Over the same period, UK GDP grew 47%, while GDP plus unpaid household-service gross value added grew 46%.
Other measures illustrate the scale of unpaid activity around volunteering. Goods used in producing unpaid household services accounted for around 12% of total UK household spending across 2014–2023. The value of unpaid adult care rose 24% from 2019 to 2020 and was 81% higher in 2023 than in 2019. These figures cover the broader unpaid household-services account, so they should not be treated as the monetary value of formal volunteering alone.
The 2026 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report: Volunteerism and Its Measurements estimated that 34.5% of the global working-age population engaged in volunteer work during any four-week period, equivalent to about 2.1 billion people. The estimate is an average for 2022–2025, not a count for one single day or year.
The same UNV/ILO estimates put the volunteer-work rate at 58.5% in Africa and 30.3% in the Americas for a four-week period. Globally, an estimated 25% of working-age people engaged in direct volunteer work and 11.7% in organization-based volunteer work. These categories help distinguish unpaid help given directly from volunteering conducted through an organization.
Measurement remains uneven internationally. Among the 193 UN Member States, 64 had measured volunteer work through national statistics since 2008. Those countries averaged only two recordings each between 2008 and 2023, so comparisons across countries and years should be interpreted with care.