Why is volunteering important?
As well as helping others, volunteering has been shown to improve volunteers' wellbeing too.
It’s human nature to feel good after helping someone out. Volunteering can also help you gain valuable new skills and experiences, and boost your confidence.
If you’re interested in volunteering, here’s how to get started and some volunteering stories to inspire you.
- An estimated 14.2m people in the UK volunteered through a group, club or organisation in 2021/22.
- Almost one in five (16%) people report volunteering at least once a month (about 8.3m people in the UK).
- More than half of the UK population gets involved in informal volunteering – but this is less visible. Informal volunteering can involve things like going shopping, providing childcare or doing housework for free for someone who is not a relative or a friend.
Read the volunteering statistics from NCVO’s UK Civil Society Almanac 2023.
