Voluntary Work, Australia 2006
From PhilanthropyWiki
|
This publication contains results from the national Voluntary Work Survey conducted throughout Australia from March to July 2006 as part of the General Social Survey (GSS). The major aim of the survey was to collect data on rates of participation in voluntary work, hours contributed, characteristics of people who volunteer, the types of organisations they work for and the activities they undertake. Information on whether people made monetary donations to organisations and the types of organisations donated to were also collected. Donor information was previously collected along with voluntary work in 2000.
Among the survey's findings:
- 5.2 million people, or 34% of the Australian population aged 18 and over, participate in voluntary work
- The total voluntary hours committed is 713
- Women volunteer more commonly than men (36% compared to 32%)
- People with school aged children have higher rates of volunteering, especially those who have partners (64% of partnered mothers with children aged 5-14 years and 51% of fathers in this situation were volunteers)
- 36% of volunteer involvements were for less than 20 hours per year, and 7% were for 300 or more hours per year.
- The types of organisations that volunteers gave most time to were sport/physical recreation (26% of all voluntary work hours), community/welfare (19%), religious (17%) and education and training (10%) organisations.
- When compared the earlier voluntary work surveys in 1995 and 2000, the rate of volunteering has increased from 24% to 32% and to 35% in the respective years.
More details about the voluntary work survey results are available in Voluntary Work, Australia 2006 (cat. no. 4441.0).