Belgium: volunteer workforce

According to the Plate-forme francophone du Volontariat, volunteers are generally defined as those providing services to others or for the collective interest, without any reward in return, and as part of a structure that goes beyond the simple mutual family or friends (source: www.ces-ulg.be; the 3^rd

July 2005’s Law on the Status of the Volunteer entered into force on 6 February 2006).

According to the 2007 EESC Report, Belgian FTE volunteers amount to 99,100 units, representing 2.3 % of the total economically active population (aged between 14 and 65 years old; 1995 data). According to existing and more updated studies, there were 1,500,000 volunteers in Belgium for about 150 000 FTE jobs (approximately 5% of employment).

The 32% of the adult population is engaged in some kind of volunteer activity (1999-2001 data).

According to the Centre d’Economie Sociale, HEC – ULg, men, in average, volunteer more than women; the typical volunteer, moreover, usually presents a higher education level (secondary school or university) and he/she usually earns above the average; his/her status is usually of an active (part-time or full-time) person or, in a small percentage, of pensioner; in addition, there is a positive correlation between the engagement in volunteering activities and the fact that a family member is already a volunteer. Ambiguous data are instead delivered as far as the age of the typical volunteer is concerned.

According to the same source (www.ces-ulg.be), in 2001 volunteers were mostly engaged in culture, sports and entertainment (69.7%); they were equivalent to 76,000 FTE employees, and they would have cost nearly 2,400 million €: it would have meant – approximately – a 20% increase in the percentage of the third sector on GDP.

 

Branches	Nombre de bénévoles	ETP bénévoles	ETP bénévoles (en %)	Imputation monétaire (milliers d’euros)
1-2.Agric/industrie/services	347 968	12 252	16,1%	358 699
3. Education	10 719	394	0,5%	15 462
4. Services de santé	11 406	1 159	1,5%	48 814
5. Action sociale	176 231	8 863	11,6%	289 159
6. Défense des droits	15 467	463	0,6%	17 389
7. Culture, sports et loisirs	604 357	53 128	69,7%	1 666 787
Total	1 166 147	76 259	100,0%	2 396 310

Source : Centre d’Economie Sociale. Ces chiffres sont repris par l’Institut des Comptes Nationaux, Le compte satellite des institutions sans but lucratif – 2000 à 2001, Banque nationale de Belgique, Bruxelles, 2004.