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5.8 million people in Australia (31% of the population) volunteered in the Australian community during 2014, according to statistics released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Women are more likely to participate in voluntary work than men (34% and 29%, respectively).

Commenting on the findings, ABS spokesperson Allan McLean said the results from the General Social Survey present important information about volunteers in our community.

The highest rates of volunteering were for young people aged 15-17 years (42%), those aged 35-44 years (39%) and older people aged 65-74 years (35%).

The most common type of organisations that people volunteer for are sport and physical recreation organisations (31%).

Couples with children are more likely to have volunteered in the last 12 months (38%) than couples without children (29%) or people living alone (25%).

McLean explained “volunteers not only make a huge contribution to the lives of the people in our community, they are also essential to connecting people and building social connections through a greater sense of belonging.”

Nearly half of the volunteers have volunteered for more than 10 years and more than two-thirds of volunteers report that at least one of their parents had also participated in voluntary work.

The most commonly reported reasons for volunteering are to help others or the community (64%), for personal satisfaction (57%) or to do something worthwhile (54%).

McLean added “we have found volunteers contribute 743 million hours to the community across diverse activities.

“This equates to an average of 128 hours per volunteer in the last 12 months.

“Almost 20% of volunteers performed more than 200 hours of volunteering throughout the year.”

The ABS defines a volunteer is someone who is over the age of 15 and, in the previous 12 months, willingly gave unpaid help, in the form of time, service or skills, through an organisation or group.

Voluntary work excludes employment or study commitments, for example, work experience, student placements or Community Work under Mutual Obligation in the last 12 months through an organisation.

Further information can be found in General Social Survey, 2014 (cat. no 4159.0), available for free download from the ABS website at www.abs.gov.au.

Images show volunteers in youth sport (top) and at the Ballarat Show (below).

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