More than 31,000 persons aged 12 and over living in private households were involved in voluntary work last year, the National Statistics Office said today.

The 2013 Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey revealed that 31,250 persons aged 12 and over and living in private households did some form of voluntary work on a regular basis.

The largest share of these volunteers dedicated their time to a voluntary organisation, while just 6.5 per cent of the active volunteers did informal voluntary work, such as helping out a neighbour or a relative.

The majority of persons doing formal voluntary work were aged between 25 and 49, while informal voluntary work was more popular among persons aged 50-64. Persons who did voluntary work within a voluntary organisation mostly performed work related to institutional care, with 34.7 per cent.

At 45.7 per cent, the largest share of the volunteers participated in the organisation’s activities.

The share of males and females who have been carrying out voluntary work for more than a decade amounted to 40.9 per cent and 35.6 per cent respectively of the total number of active volunteers.

A third of the volunteers were engaged in such activities for less than 10 hours per week, while a quarter of persons dedicated 30 or more hours per week for such endeavours. On average, males spent 11 hours more per month in voluntary activities than their female counterparts.

The average number of hours spent doing voluntary work for persons aged between 25 and 49 increased by 7 hours over the previous year, while for the remaining age categories, the average remained stable.

Furthermore, the average number of hours spent in voluntary work was seen to differ according to the main activity status, from an average of 25 hours per month for working persons to 42 hours per month for unemployed persons.

More than half of the volunteers said they were doing this work because they felt it was their moral duty, while a further 16.5 per cent said that their main reason was to meet new people and for recreational purposes.

Persons aged 12 and over and living in a private household that were either paying or non-paying members within a voluntary organisation amounted to 4.5 per cent.

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