Overall levels of volunteering have fallen by 10 per cent since 2013/14 according to an annual government survey published today.
The Community Life Survey, published annually by the Cabinet Office until last year and by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport this year, tracks a number of indicators of individuals’ involvement communities across England, including volunteering and giving.
Between 2013/14 and 2016/17 the proportion of adults engaged in any volunteering over the year fell from 70 in every 100 people, to 63 in every 100. In both 2013/14 and 2015/16 it was 65 in every 100.
SIx in every 100 people took part in employer volunteering in 2016/17, which was comparable to previous years.
Over the same period, those volunteering once a month fell from 44 people in 100 to 39 in every 100.
The report said that drop was “most noticeable” among those aged 25 to 34 and those aged 50 to 64.
For those aged 25 to 34 those participating in volunteering once a year fell to 57 in every 100, and for the 50 to 64 age group it fell to 62 in every 100.
For people aged between 16 and 25 the proportion engaged in formal volunteering at least once a month has fallen from 29 in every 100, in 2013/14 to 21 in every 100 in 2016/17.
Giving remains stable
In 2016/17 three-quarters of respondents said that they had given money to charity in the four weeks prior to completing the survey, comparable to last year when it was 73 per cent.
The average amount donated remained the same as last year at £22.
This year over 10,000 people were surveyed.
Editor's note: The article initially stated that volunteering had fallen by 10 percentage points since last year, this compared the results of the face-to-face survey last year with the results of the online survey this year. The face-to-face survey has been discontinued and this article has been updated to use to data from the online survey that has been carried out over the past four years.
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