Key findings of the 2021 NSW State of Volunteering Report

Key statistics from the 2021 NSW State of Volunteering report  

The volunteering sector is nearly four-times larger than the NSW public sector workforce and the same size as the private sector. 

• 4.9 million people volunteered. 

• Volunteers contributed on average 5.8 hours per week or 28 hours per month. 

• The value of volunteering to NSW is calculated to be $127 billion, and for every dollar invested $3.30 is returned.  

• 87.6% of NSW residents aged 18-24 volunteered in 2020 – over 640,000 youth in total, and young volunteers contributed on average 40.7 hours of their time per month 

• 82.4% of volunteer involving organisations relied on volunteers aged over 65 years old.  

• 49.6% of volunteer involving organisations included skilled professionals among the ranks of their volunteers. 

• During 2020, 32% of volunteers reported they directly donated money to organisations they volunteered for – additional to donations of time or expenses. 

• 42.3% volunteers also reported making donations to other organisations or charities. 

• More non-volunteers were unsure as to how to go about volunteering (25.9%) than those who were genuinely not interested (21.7%). 

• Volunteers indicated that they are twice as likely to volunteer more over the next three years than less. 

Download the document to find out more.