# More young people volunteering as overall rates remain consistent

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/11/10/young-people-volunteering-overall-rates-remain-consistent/
- Published: 2016-11-10T09:24:45+00:00
- Author: Melanie May

**More than 21m people volunteer in the UK at least once a year, with 9% of the 
adult population accounting for 51% of all volunteering hours, according to figures
from [nfpSynergy](http://nfpsynergy.net/).**

The [figures on volunteering](http://nfpsynergy.net/free-report/facts-and-figures-volunteering)
show that rates have remained fairly consistent over the past ten years while the
gender gap has diminished and the proportion of young people volunteering has increased.

Roughly a fifth of people said they had given time as a volunteer for an organisation
or in the local community in the three months prior to being questioned. This has
remained fairly consistent since 2003, according to the nfpSynergy data.

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#### Who volunteers?

People from a higher social grade are much more likely to volunteer: 25% of those
from households in the £40,000 income bracket, and people who have given money in
the last three months (23%) are also much more likely to have volunteered in the
same period than those who have not (10%).

Young people aged 16-34, and the over 65s are more likely to have volunteered for
a charity over a three-month period compared to other groups, with students in higher
education the most likely group to volunteer: twice as likely in the last four weeks
compared to other age groups.

Regular worshippers are also more likely to have volunteered in a given three-month
period (43%) than others (21%). However, the report suggests that doing unpaid work
for a religious group or place of worship could count as volunteering in some of
these cases, which may partly explain the differences between volunteering rates
of regular and non-regular worshippers.

#### No more gender gap

According to the report, when it comes to rates of volunteering, the gender gap 
has closed over the last decade. While women consistently volunteered more than 
men until 2009, this trend has not persisted over the last five years and the proportion
of men and women who have volunteered in a three-month period is the same, at 21%.

#### Future expectations

nfpSynergy also asked people about their volunteering plans for the future, and 
found that in general, groups who were already volunteering the most expect to increase
their volunteering more than others, including regular worshippers, charity donors
and those of a high social grade.

The two youngest age groups (16-24 and 25-34) are two times more likely to expect
to increase their time spent volunteering than the average individual. According
to nfpSynergy, however, this is largely due to greater uncertainty amongst other
age groups, and particularly with the over 65s, the life changes that often come
with getting older.

 * **[OCS and Nesta announce £2 million innovative volunteering funds](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/02/17/ocs-nesta-announce-2m-innovative-volunteering-funds/)**(
   17 February 2017)
 * **[Lloyds community engagement manager wins Points of Light Award](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/04/05/lloyds-community-engagement-manager-wins-points-light-award/)**(
   5 April 2017)
 * **[M&S pledges to support local communities and raise £25 million for charities with Plan A 2025](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/06/06/ms-pledges-support-local-communities-raise-25m-charities-plan-2025/)**(
   6 June 2017)

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