Volunteer Rates in Canada

First of all, let’s explain what “volunteer rate” means. It’s the percentage of Canada’s population that performed some form of volunteering in a specific timeframe.

As an example… Jane’s school class has 10 people. 5 people volunteered yesterday. The volunteer rate yesterday was 50% (i.e., half of Jane’s class volunteered). Now apply that to Canada’s population aged 15 and over.

What’s notable about Canada’s volunteer rate? Based on data collected from Statistics Canada, it looks as though Canada’s volunteer rate peaked at 47% in 2010. With the latest data pulled in 2013, it appears that the gains we enjoyed from 2004 to 2010 have been lost. In 2013, the volunteer rate sank to 44%.

What can we do about that? Volunteer! How are we helping at Volunteer Halifax? We’re trying to make it as simple as possible to match individuals that want to volunteer with organizations that need help. Let’s all push to make sure we can show that 2013 was just an anomaly, and what we really should have seen was an increase in volunteer rate!

The data summarized above was pulled from Statistics Canada: Statistics Canada, General Social Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating, 2013, and the Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, 2004, 2007 and 2010.