During National Volunteer Week in May this year, Volunteering Queensland released the inaugural State of Volunteering in Queensland 2021 Report into the status and the economic and social value of volunteering.
The key findings from the report show that over 3 million or 75.7% of the adult population of Queenslanders volunteered in 2020.
These volunteers contributed over 900 million hours at an average of 24.9 hours per month or 5.7 hours per week, providing $84 billion in value for Queensland.
44.7% of volunteering takes place in the local community. 14.1% volunteered formally, 30.3% volunteered informally, 55.5% volunteered both formally and informally.
More people volunteered in 2020 compared to 2019, but reported slightly fewer hours.
The volunteering sector is over three-times larger than the Queensland Government sector and approximately the same size as the private sector.
Making the contribution of Queensland volunteers to their communities even more impressive; it is costing them on average over $1,600 a year to volunteer!
Read more fascinating insights in the full report, produced by Volunteering Queensland, here.