Levels of volunteering

Social connection

Levels of volunteering

Volunteering plays an important role in the ACT community and contributes to building healthier and more resilient individuals, communities and natural environments.

Volunteers

This measure shows the proportion of Canberrans who have volunteered in the last 12 months.

This is important because volunteering has been found to help us:

In Canberra, volunteering rates increased to 40.2% in 2024 from 32.0% in early 2023.

Similarly, the proportion of people who had not volunteered in the past 12 months decreased to 59.8% in 2024 from 68.0% in 2023.

Volunteering levels would appear to have returned closer to levels observed prior to COVID19.

Data for this indicator are sourced from the University of Canberra Living well in the ACT Region survey. Detailed survey data, survey user guide and published reports from the survey can be accessed at https://www.regionalwellbeing.org.au/living-well-in-the-act-region/.

Line graph of percentage of respondents who reported volunteering in the previous 12 months in the ACT, between 2019 and 2024.

In 2024:

  • 59.8% did not volunteer in the last 12 months compared to 68.0% in 2023
  • 40.2% volunteered in the last 12 months compared to 32.0% in 2023.

The Living Well in the ACT Region survey, conducted by the University of Canberra, aims to measure, track and understand the wellbeing and resilience of adult residents living in the Australian Capital Territory region of Australia. It examines factors known to affect wellbeing and resilience at the individual, household, community and regional level.

When generating data for the ACT, statistical weighting is used to address differences between the sample of people who respond to the survey, and the characteristics of the ACT adult population.

Data are produced from this survey for different groups of people in the ACT. The ‘overall response’ category represents responses at the ACT population level. Where reliable estimates can be produced, data are also presented for Canberrans by: gender, age, cultural background, gender identity and sexuality, carer role and experience of disability. Not all differences over time or between groups are statistically significant: information on confidence intervals for the data presented here is available in data tables that can be accessed at https://www.regionalwellbeing.org.au/living-well-in-the-act-region/.

Care is needed when interpreting the differences in findings between groups as the descriptive statistics published here show where there are differences in wellbeing, but not what has caused those differences in wellbeing.

Further information about the survey can be found at Living Well in the ACT Region or by contacting regionalwellbeing@canberra.edu.au.