Volunteering in Northern Ireland 2007 Facts and Figures
Formal Volunteering:
'Unpaid voluntary work carried out with, or under the auspices of, an organisation.'
- Approximately 282,000 formal volunteers
- Each give an average 13.4 hours per month
- Contribute £504 million to the economy (based on the N. Ireland average hourly wage)
- 61% are women
- 16 - 24 and 35 - 49 are the age groups most likely to volunteer
- 65+ age group are least likely to volunteer
- Around one third work with a voluntary or community association
- The most common type of volunteering activity was raising or handling money (32%)
Informal Volunteering:
'Unpaid or voluntary work carried out outside organisations, often at neighbourhood level, but outside the immediate family.'
- Approximately 470,000 informal volunteers
- Each give an average 9 hours per month
- Contribute £433 million to the economy
- The most common reason given by individuals who carry out informal volunteering was that they wanted to get involved
- Approximately 146,000 are both formal and informal volunteers
Non-Volunteers:
- 17.5% would be willing to help out if asked
- More likely to be male, over 65, not married and have no children
- 38% stated their work commitments prevented them from volunteering
- 28% of respondents had never thought about volunteering
Motivations:
- 50% of formal volunteers got involved because they wanted to help people or improve things
- 73% of formal volunteers said personal enjoyment was a very important benefit of volunteering
- 74% of formal volunteers stated getting satisfaction from seeing the results of their voluntary activity to be the main benefit of being a volunteer
- Most respondents felt that advertisements or articles in local newspapers would be the most effective way of promoting volunteering opportunities
Volunteers' Attitudes:
- Around half of formal volunteers strongly agreed that organisations could not survive without unpaid workers
- 10% of respondents believe that organisations involved with volunteers were amateurish, a decrease from 15% in 1995
- 70% of all respondents felt that taking part in unpaid work helps people take an active role in society
- Over the last 12 years the number of people who felt that everyone has a moral responsibility to do unpaid work at some stage in their lives has remained constant
Volunteering from an Organisational Perspective:
- 77% of organisations said they could not operate without the support of volunteers
- 38% of organisations said that in the last five years the number of volunteers in their organisation has increased, 42% reported a decrease
- The most common type of volunteering is organising or helping to run an activity, followed by leading a group, or being a member of a committee or trustee
- Personal contact, word of mouth and local newspapers are the most common ways of recruiting volunteers
- Organisations felt that the recruitment of volunteers would be easier if there were local volunteer recruitment campaigns and if there were more resources available to cover the activities of volunteers
Organisational Attitudes to Volunteers:
- 67% of organisations agreed that volunteers bring special qualities to an organisation
- 59% of organisations believe volunteers are becoming more difficult to recruit
The facts and figures on volunteering are taken from the Volunteer Development Agency's research report It's All About Time: Volunteering In Northern Ireland 2007.
Click here to download a copy of the full report.
