When we think of volunteering, we often imagine organized charity events, non-profit galas, or uniformed aid workers. But the 2026 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report (SWVR) suggests we need to completely rethink that image.
According to new global estimates produced by the ILO and published in the SWVR, the scale of human solidarity is much larger than previously estimated. Thanks to improved measurement tools, newly available data in some previously low-coverage regions and a focus on the Global South, we now estimate that, on average, about 2.1 billion people engage in volunteer work monthly.
Here are the key takeaways from the new global estimates and what they mean.
What do the new estimates show?
Globally, 34.5 per cent of working-age people volunteer monthly, with men (36.9 per cent) doing so slightly more than women (32.1 per cent).
Participation varies significantly by region:
- Africa records the highest volunteer rate at 58.5 per cent, reflecting the central role of mutual aid in community life, with men engaging in this form of work more than women (63.1 per cent compared to 54.0 per cent).
- Asia and the Pacific, and the Americas have similar volunteer rates (around 30-32 per cent). Men in Asia and the Pacific are also more likely to volunteer than women (34.6 per cent compared to 29.0 per cent).
- Europe and Central Asia, and the Arab States have the lowest estimated rate of volunteer work at 24 per cent. While there is no difference between volunteer rates by sex in Europe and Central Asia, the difference is significant in the Arab States.
Direct volunteering dominates worldwide
Volunteer work can be provided either through or for organizations, or directly for other people. One of the most important insights from the chapter is that most volunteer work happens outside organizations. Globally, 25 per cent of working-age people engage in direct volunteering, such as helping neighbours or supporting others informally, compared to 11.7 per cent who volunteer through organizations.
This has major implications. It shows that, for much of the world, resilience and social capital are built horizontally through peer-to-peer networks rather than vertically through formal institutions or groups. Development efforts that focus only on registered organizations risk overlooking the most widespread and trusted forms of civic action, particularly in the Global South.
Interpreting the increase carefully
Compared with the global monthly rate of 14.9 per cent cited in the 2022 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report, the new estimate of 34.5 per cent is not evidence of a sudden surge in volunteer work participation. Instead, the increase reflects improved measurement, especially the inclusion of new UNV surveys designed to capture under-measured forms of volunteer work in large, low- and middle-income countries.
This underscores a key message of the report: changes in volunteer rates over time must be interpreted carefully and always in light of how volunteering is measured.
A roadmap for policy and action
The scale revealed by these estimates makes a compelling case for change. Volunteer work statistics can help policymakers identify gaps in public services, guide resource allocation, and better support community-driven solutions. Sustaining reliable global estimates will require countries to measure volunteer work regularly and align national statistical systems with international standards, particularly the ICLS definition.
Recognizing and measuring volunteer work is not just about counting contributions — it is about acknowledging human solidarity as a renewable resource for sustainable development. When volunteerism is fully visible in data and policy, societies are better equipped to build more equitable, resilient and inclusive futures.
How were global estimates produced?
Estimation follows the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) definition of volunteer work: unpaid, non-compulsory activities undertaken by working-age people to produce goods or provide services for others within a four-week reference period. This statistical definition focuses on volunteer work as a form of productive activity, which is a subset of broader “volunteering” and excludes activities like protesting or donating blood, even though those may be voluntary civic actions.
To produce comparable global and regional estimates:
- National data were harmonized to a four-week reference period
- Inconsistent or unreliable observations were filtered out
- Modelling was used to fill data gaps, especially where countries measured only some forms of volunteer work
- Country-level estimates were aggregated using population-weighted averages for the period 2022–2025 to obtain regional and global aggregates
This approach addresses long-standing challenges such as data scarcity, incomplete coverage of direct volunteering, and lack of comparability across countries. The chapter and a dedicated SWVR annex provide a detailed description of the estimation methodology.
