The new ‘big society’: 4 in 10 Britons volunteer, survey reveals
With the extra social capital which we know exists in rural areas I suspect this is a more potent phenomenon in rural than urban places. I also suspect over the next couple of years we are going to need to rely more and more on this resource in rural areas. This story tells us:
Almost four in 10 Britons volunteer, with the vast majority saying it benefits their mental health and acts as an antidote to loneliness, according to a survey of more than 10,000 people.
The survey, conducted by YouGov on behalf of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), involved 10,103 people aged over 18, the largest poll on the subject in more than a decade.
Of the respondents 77% said volunteering had improved their mental health, with just over half (53%) saying it had improved their physical health.
Young people were most likely to say volunteering had helped combat isolation, with 77% of 18- to 24-year-olds agreeing with this, compared with 68% of all ages and 76% of 25– to 34-year-olds.
“There is an emerging body of evidence that suggests volunteering can improve your mental health and the language I have read is that it can help with depression, life satisfaction and wellbeing,” said Karl Wilding, NCVO’s policy and volunteering director.
“Broadly speaking, it helps as it is a social activity, and when you are doing things with others and groups that conviviality and connectedness is important,” he said, adding that it was most beneficial to people who didn’t have a partner or a job.
A 2017 study into Wildlife Trust volunteers found more than half those who started out with low mental health had improved after 12 weeks.
The NCVO survey found that 69% of respondents had volunteered at some point in their life, 38% having done so in the past year. Extrapolated over the entire adult population, this means more than 20 million people had given of their time at some point in the year.