| MEDIA FACT SHEET | |
June 27, 2007 | Embargoed 9.30 am (AEST) | 70/2007 |
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One in five Australians engages in voluntary work: Census |
- Almost one in five, or 18% of Australians 15 years of age and over reported that they had done voluntary work in the year before the 2006 Census. Of those, 57% were female and 43% were male.
- Canberra was the capital city with the highest proportion of people doing voluntary work (22.3%). Sydney and Perth had the lowest proportions of people volunteering (14.8% and 15.1% respectively).
- Western Australia was the state with the lowest proportion of volunteers (16.8%).
Some interesting aspects of the response:
- Those born in North America, including the United States and Canada, were most likely to be volunteers in the Australian Community (29.9%), followed by those born in Micronesia and Melanesia (21.8%). Australian-born came in third at 20.6%.
- Those born in South Eastern Europe were least likely to be volunteers (6.4%).
- More comprehensive statistics on voluntary work can be found in Voluntary Work, Australia 2006 (ABS cat. no. 4441.0).
NB: The figures in this fact sheet exclude overseas visitors. Where an answer to a question has not been provided (i.e. not stated) these occurrences form a separate category in the data and therefore some percentages do not total to 100%.
Source: ABS 2006 Census.
Table 1. 2006 Census: Volunteers in Capital cities(a) |
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| Sydney | Melbourne | Brisbane | Adelaide | Perth | Hobart | Darwin | Canberra | |
| % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | |
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Not a volunteer | 74.6 | 74.8 | 73.7 | 74.5 | 75.4 | 71.9 | 68.7 | 71.0 | |
Volunteer | 14.8 | 15.6 | 17.6 | 17.8 | 15.1 | 19.4 | 17.5 | 22.3 | |
Not stated | 10.6 | 9.6 | 8.7 | 7.7 | 9.4 | 8.7 | 13.7 | 6.7 | |
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(a) Capital City Statistical Division. |
Table 2. 2006 Census: Volunteers in States and Territories |
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| NSW | Vic. | Qld | SA | WA | Tas. | NT | ACT | Aust. | |
| % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | |
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Not a volunteer | 73.0 | 72.9 | 71.8 | 71.8 | 73.2 | 71.6 | 68.2 | 70.9 | 72.6 | |
Volunteer | 17.1 | 17.8 | 18.5 | 20.3 | 16.9 | 20.0 | 17.6 | 22.3 | 17.9 | |
Not stated | 9.9 | 9.3 | 9.7 | 7.8 | 10.0 | 8.4 | 14.2 | 6.8 | 9.5 | |
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