1. Main facts and figures
- 23% of people aged 16 and over in England took part in formal volunteering at least once a month in the year ending March 2020
- Asian people were consistently less likely to volunteer than White people or Black people over the 4 years covered
2. Things you need to know
What the data measures
The data measures the percentage of people aged 16 and over who had volunteered formally at least once a month in the 12 months before being surveyed.
Formal volunteering means giving unpaid help through groups, clubs or other organisations.
Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Not included in the data
The data does not include informal volunteering, for example doing unpaid work for friends or family.
The ethnic groups used in the data
People chose their ethnicity from a list of 18 ethnic groups used in the 2011 Census.
Data is shown for the following 5 aggregated groups:
- Asian
- Black
- Mixed
- White
- Other
This is because the number of people surveyed was too small to make reliable generalisations about all 18 ethnic groups.
Methodology
Read the detailed methodology document (PDF opens in a new window or tab) for the data.
The figures on this page are based on survey data. Find out more about interpreting survey data, including how reliability is affected by the number of people surveyed.
You can also read about how weighting is used to make survey estimates more representative of the group they are about.
3. By ethnicity
| 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | 2016-17 % | 2016-17 Number of respondents | 2017-18 % | 2017-18 Number of respondents | 2018-19 % | 2018-19 Number of respondents | 2019-20 % | 2019-20 Number of respondents |
| All | 22 | 10,256 | 22 | 10,217 | 22 | 10,627 | 23 | 10,243 |
| Asian | 17 | 1,111 | 18 | 926 | 16 | 909 | 15 | 798 |
| Black | 25 | 360 | 24 | 353 | 25 | 348 | 24 | 396 |
| Mixed | 16 | 467 | 19 | 510 | 19 | 499 | 19 | 464 |
| White | 23 | 8,022 | 23 | 8,108 | 22 | 8,560 | 23 | 8,057 |
| Other | 23 | 163 | 18 | 124 | 22 | 125 | 18 | 118 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Volunteering By ethnicity Summary
The data shows that, in the year ending March 2020:
- 23% of people aged 16 and over in England took part in formal volunteering at least once a month – a small increase compared with the previous 3 years (all 22%)
- Asian people (15%) were less likely to have volunteered than Black people (24%) or White people (23%)
- there were no reliable differences compared with the previous year for any ethnic group
4. Data sources
Source
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
Official statistics
Publisher
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The Community Life Survey tracks developments in areas that are important to encouraging social action and empowering communities.
These include:
- volunteering and charitable giving
- neighbourhood (views about the local area, community cohesion and belonging)
- civic engagement and social action
- wellbeing
5. Download the data
This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, year, value, number of respondents