Women More Likely to Volunteer Than Men- ABS
2 December 2011 at 9:30 am
More than one-third of Australians did voluntary work last year, with more women volunteering than men, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
In 2010, 36% of Australians aged 18 years and over participated in voluntary work – 38% of women and 34% of men.
Despite the pressures of balancing work and family life, the ABS says people who were employed were most likely to be volunteers – 44% of those with part-time work and 38% with full-time work, compared to 20% of those unemployed and 31% of those not in the labour force.
Women working part-time had the highest rate of volunteering (49%). For parents with school-aged children, those in a couple relationship had the highest rate of participation in voluntary work (55%).
Sport and physical recreation organisations were the most common type that people volunteered for, accounting for 63% of volunteering fathers and 47% of volunteering mothers with children. People over 65 most commonly volunteered for welfare and community organisations (37%).
The ABS says volunteering runs in the family – 66% of volunteers reported that their parents had undertaken voluntary work and volunteers were more likely to have participated in group or community activities as a child.
As well as volunteering through organisations, 64% of volunteers had also provided informal assistance in the last 4 weeks to people outside of their household, such as relatives, friends and neighbours.
Volunteers were also more likely than non-volunteers to provide care to someone with a disability, long-term health condition or problems with old age (27% compared to 17% for non-volunteers).
The Statistics are at http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/4441.0Main%20Features22010?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=4441.0&issue=2010&num=&view=
