Volunteering Data

 
The limited data available show that the amount of volunteer work is sizable and makes a significant contribution. For instance:

• Approximately 140 million people in the 37 countries studied engage in volunteer work in a typical year—that represents 12 percent of the total adult population of those countries.
• If those 140 million volunteers comprised the population of a country, it would be the 8^th largest country in the world.
• Those 140 million volunteers represent the equivalent of 20.8 million full-time equivalent jobs.
• Volunteers make a US$400 billion contribution to the global economy; that would make it the 7^th largest economy in Europe.
• Volunteer input represents 68 percent of total private philanthropy in the countries studied.
• Volunteers represent 44 percent of the nonprofit workforce in those countries.

These data were obtained through the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector (CNP) and UN Handbook on Non-Profit Institutions in the System of National Accounts Projects, conducted by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies in conjunction with Local Associates and national statistical agencies, respectively. You can explore additional findings from both projects here.