The figures, published as part of the UK Civil Society Almanac 2016, show that the proportion of young people aged between 16 and 25 saying they volunteer once a month has increased from 23 per cent in 2010/11 to 35 per cent in 2014/15 – a rise of 12 percentage points.??
The data also revealed the number of young people who say they volunteer at least once a year rose to 47 per cent in 2014/15 – up from 38 per cent in 2010/11.??
The data was collected through the government’s Citizenship and Community Life survey.
Under-25s had the highest rate of monthly volunteering and second highest rate of volunteering at least once a year, but NCVO warned breakdowns of volunteer rates should be interpreted with caution due to the smaller number of responses to the 2014/15 Community Life survey.??
Nick Ockenden, head of research at NCVO, said there has been “much effort” in promoting volunteering to young people, particularly in recent years.
“While we can’t know from this data whether these programmes have created this effect, it’s undoubtedly good news that more young people are volunteering,” he said. ??
“We know that volunteering at a young age can help set people on a path of getting involved in their communities over their lifetimes. ??
“We should invest more in looking at the factors behind this trend in order to do what we can to help it continue.”
