Australia's formal volunteering rate holds at 22.6 per cent while volunteer hours climb to 618 million

Australia's official measure of volunteering has stopped falling without recovering. The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the General Social Survey 2025 on 6 May 2026. It found that 22.6 per cent of people aged 15 and over, an estimated 5,007,000 people, did unpaid voluntary work through an organisation in the 12 months before they were surveyed. The ABS reported no statistically significant difference from the 25 per cent recorded in 2020. The hours those volunteers gave, however, went up sharply, from 490 million in 2020 to 618.2 million in 2025.

The survey was collected between 1 May and 28 June 2025. According to the ABS methodology page for the release, 13,302 households responded fully out of an approach sample of 27,129 dwellings, and about 78 per cent answered online rather than by telephone. The scope was usual residents aged 15 and over in private dwellings, excluding very remote areas and discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. From 2025 the survey runs annually, which matters here: these were the first official ABS volunteering statistics since 2020, and the next set is due later in 2026.

The longer series shows a clear decline. In its analysis of the release, published in May 2026, Volunteering Australia puts formal volunteering at 36.2 per cent in 2010, 30.9 per cent in 2014, 28.8 per cent in 2019, 25 per cent in 2020 and 22.6 per cent in 2025. The two sources do not fully agree on one point of that series. The ABS summary page describes the 2025 result as similar to 2020 but down from 30 per cent in 2019, while Volunteering Australia's figure for 2019 is 28.8 per cent. Neither publication explains the gap.

Informal volunteering, meaning unpaid help given to people outside the household, was reported by 29.5 per cent of adults, or 6.553 million people, in the four weeks before the survey. That compares with 33.4 per cent when the ABS first measured it in 2019 and 32.1 per cent in 2020, again with no statistically significant change since 2020. Because the two questions use different reference periods, 12 months for formal work and four weeks for informal, the ABS and Volunteering Australia both warn against adding them. A separate unduplicated count puts 9.5 million people, or 42.8 per cent of the population aged 15 and over, in one category or the other.

The hours are concentrated. People aged 65 and over gave 223.2 million of the 618.2 million hours, and 43.7 per cent of volunteers in that age group gave 100 hours or more. The lowest participation rate was among those aged 25 to 34, at 13.1 per cent, against 28 per cent for those aged 45 to 54. Formal volunteering was highest in remote areas, at 34 per cent, and lowest in major cities, at 20.9 per cent. The largest state or territory movement was in the Australian Capital Territory, where the rate fell from 30.9 per cent in 2020 to 22 per cent in 2025.

A new module asked about cost. It found 54.4 per cent of volunteers incurred expenses, most commonly transport, travel or motor vehicle costs at 40.8 per cent, and that 49.4 per cent incurred expenses without being reimbursed. Among people who did not volunteer formally, 47 per cent said they had no time, 35.5 per cent said they were not interested or saw no need, and 16.1 per cent said they were not sure how or had never been asked. Financial reasons were given by 8.1 per cent overall but by 14.7 per cent of those aged 35 to 44.

The official numbers sit awkwardly beside state peak body research. The 2025 NSW State of Volunteering Report, published by The Centre for Volunteering on 10 December 2025 from a survey of 2,528 residents, found 69.5 per cent of the New South Wales population aged 15 and over volunteered in the past year, 4.9 million people contributing 1.3 billion hours, which it valued at $205.3 billion. Volunteering Victoria's State of Volunteering Report 2025, based on a survey of 2,541 residents about 2024, found 58.9 per cent, or 3.3 million Victorians, giving 732.4 million hours. The ABS puts formal volunteering at 22.3 per cent in New South Wales and 21.8 per cent in Victoria. The state reports use a broader definition covering both formal and informal activity and rely on opt-in style resident surveys, while the ABS uses a compulsory household survey and keeps the two measures apart.

Civic participation moved barely at all: 7.3 per cent of adults were involved in a civic or political group in 2025, against 7.2 per cent in 2020. What happens next should sharpen the picture. Volunteering Australia said on 24 July 2026 that the Census held on 11 August 2026 again asked whether people had done unpaid voluntary work for an organisation in the past year, and for the first time recognised Volunteer Coordinator as an occupation. On 10 August 2026 it reported that 562,000 people aged 15 to 24 volunteered formally in 2025, giving 40.3 million hours. It is not yet known whether the plateau since 2020 holds in the 2026 survey, whether rising out of pocket costs push participation down, or whether the Census count will land anywhere near the survey estimates.