April, 2026

Our approach

Volunteering Australia plays a leading role in strengthening the national evidence base for volunteering. By working closely with government agencies, academics, and sector partners, we help to ensure that national data collections accurately reflect the scale, diversity, and impact of volunteering in Australia.

Volunteering Australia is committed to excellence in research, data analysis, and evidence-informed leadership. This work underpins our national advocacy and supports policy and practice that helps us better understand Australia’s volunteering ecosystem, and our collective impact.

Our data factsheets

We develop data factsheets that interpret and synthesise contemporary volunteering statistics from key sources to help provide national snapshots of the volunteering ecosystem.

The following list of factsheets provide a summary and breakdown of the most recent key volunteering statistical information.

  • General Social Survey 2025: Factsheet

    According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) General Social Survey (GSS),1 9.5 million people volunteered in Australia in 2025, in either formal or informal volunteering or both. This is equivalent to 42.8% of the Australian population over 15 years of age.

  • Volunteering Statistics General Social Survey 2025

    According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) General Social Survey (GSS),1 9.5 million people volunteered in Australia in 2025 in either formal or informal volunteering or both. This is equivalent to 42.8% of the Australian population over 15 years of age.

  • Youth volunteering key statistics factsheet

    This document provides key statistics about youth volunteering in Australia and was released in July 2024 in honour of National Student Volunteer Week. The data presented here is taken from several sources, specifically Volunteering in Australia research undertaken in 2022 to inform the development of the National Strategy for Volunteering, the General Social Survey (GSS) 2019 and 2020, the Household Impacts of COVID-19 surveys (the February, March, April, and June waves).

  • Key volunteering statistics factsheet

    This document provides key statistics about volunteering in Australia. This factsheet presents both official data, produced by the Australian Government, and unofficial data collected by other organisations. A key source of data utilised is official statistics produced by the ABS, specifically the General Social Survey
    which includes a series of questions about volunteering.

  • Ongoing trends in volunteering in Australia

    This report presents data on the rate of formal volunteering, hours spent volunteering, and satisfaction with volunteering. It also includes analysis of the dynamics of volunteering, examining how volunteering activity has changed between 2022 and 2023.

  • Volunteering and gender: changes during the COVID-19 pandemic factsheet

    This fact sheet provides key statistics about volunteering in Australia by gender. The main source of data is the General Social Survey (GSS) which includes a series of questions about volunteering.

  • Aged care Census factsheet

    The factsheet provides a summary of key statistics from the 2020 Aged Care Workforce Census conducted by the Australian Government Department of Health.