Some 6.5 million people took part in this year’s Big Help Out (BHO), the second following the inaugural event last year to coincide with King Charles’s coronation, organisers have estimated.
According to estimates based on a poll of 2,065 British adults, 6.5 million people took part across the weekend of 7-9 June, with younger people more likely to be involved than other age groups.
This is a similar number of participants to last year, but lower than the 6.8 million that organisers predicted.
Tens of thousands of registered BHO events including those run by the Scouts, Royal Voluntary Service, RSCPA and St John Ambulance took place earlier this month across the nation.
Participants plan future volunteering
In response to another survey by Walnut Omnibus, 79% of people who took part said they were much more likely to volunteer in future.
Some 74% of participants agreed that the BHO made them speak to their neighbours and 76% said that the event made them feel a stronger sense of belonging in their community.
For 78% of participants, they said the BHO made it easier to meet new people, while 79% met someone from a different religious, cultural, social or ethnic background to themselves.
Four in 10 Britons said they would be likely to participate in the future, with this rising to six in 10 people between the ages of 18 and 34.
PM candidates take part
Prime minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer both joined events in Bishop Auckland and Harlesden respectively.
Sunak said that volunteers showed the “best of British values, pouring love and care into their communities and making everyone feel proud of the place they call home”.
“Volunteering forges live-long friendships and unifies us in increasingly uncertain times,” he said.
Starmer said: “I was pleased to have joined millions of others to celebrate the contribution that volunteers make to our communities through the Big Help Out.
“From kids’ football to lunch clubs for older people, week in week out volunteers form the bedrock of our communities, connecting and supporting people of all ages.”
