11. How many people volunteer?

The last comprehensive survey of volunteering trends in the UK was done in 1997. It revealed that 48% of respondents had taken part in voluntary activity over the past year. 74% said that they had taken part in an informal voluntary activity. 29% of respondents were regular volunteers volunteering on at least a monthly basis. 21% volunteered on a weekly basis. The figures suggested that slightly fewer people were volunteering than in 1991 when the previous survey was done.

The 2001 Home Office Citizenship Survey also looked at the number of people participating in volunteering. It said that 39% of people volunteered formally at least once in the last 12 months, and 27% had done so at least once a month. It also stated that, in the last twelve months, 67% of people had volunteered informally, and 34% had done so at least once a month.

This suggests a drop in the number of people volunteering, although it has been suggested that those who do volunteer do more hours than they used to. It's important to take care when making comparisons between the two sets of figures, however, as the research methodologies used were very different from one another.