BIS central bankers’ speeches  17  Appendix Figure 1: The OECD Better Life Index  Source: http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/  Figure 2: OECD Better Life Index – UK Summary  Source: http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/  18  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Figure 3: Examples of activities which do and do not count as volunteering under the definition given by the International Labour Organisation Classed as “volunteering” Working in a soup kitchen cooking meals for the homeless Serving on a neighbourhood clean-up committee Serving as an usher or otherwise working on behalf of a religious organisation Providing unpaid legal advice at a legal services agency Providing marginally paid foster-care services on a short-term basis Sewing a blanket for a sick neighbour  Lies outside the boundary of “volunteering” Cooking meals for one’s own children Cleaning one’s own house or yard Attending a religious service Receiving payment for legal advice or assistance Providing foster-care services on a long-term basis Sewing a blanket for a sick household member  Source: ILO (2011), Manual on the measurement of volunteer work (adapted). Figure 4: Estimates of the extent of formal volunteering in the UK in 2012  Hours (billions per year) Proportion of the sample  Total (at least once per year)  Of which frequent (at least once per month)  2.29  2.12  44%  29%  Source: ONS (2013), “Household Satellite Accounts: Valuing Voluntary Activity in the UK”. Underlying data from the Community Life Survey.
Given the growth in world population over the period since, the number of global volunteers may well now top the one billion mark. To put that in context, imagine if these volunteers comprised a single country – “Volunteerland”. It would have the second largest working age population of any country in the world, behind only China (Figure 5). The Charities Aid Foundation calculates a World Giving Index each year which ranks the generosity of people in different countries with their money and time. For volunteering, top of the league are the unlikely trio of Turkmenistan, Sri Lanka and the United States; bottom of the pack are Yemen, China and Greece. The UK ranks 26th out of 131 countries. This is respectable, if outside an automatic Champions League place (Figure 6). Of course, cross-country comparisons can be quite difficult. For example, the high rates of volunteering in ex-Soviet states, like Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, are in part down to the authorities having national days of volunteering – “subbotniks”. As these are more or less compulsory, they stretch to breaking point the definition of volunteering. 8 Third, the volunteer army is a diverse one. Volunteering is slightly more prevalent among older people and slightly less prevalent among people of child-rearing age (Figure 7). But all age groups make a significant contribution. Women and men are broadly equally likely to volunteer. And there do not appear to be major differences in volunteering across ethnic minority or socio-economic groups. 9 Fourth, numbers of volunteers appear to be stable (Figure 8).