Voluntary work is the soul of Swedish third sector. In the research Volunteering and giving as a share of GDP by country (1995-2002) realized by the Johns Hopkins Centre for Civil Society Studies (CCSS), Sweden ranks second of 36 countries in volunteering and giving.
According to the Global Civil Society – An Overview Report (Salamon et al., 2003; 1995 data), the FTE volunteers in the non-profit sector represent the 5.1% of the economically active population, out of 7.1% of the total workforce in the third sector (the remaining 1.7% is represented by FTE paid employees); the value of the volunteer work amounts to 10,206.1 million $ (approximately 7,840 million € at the current exchange rate).
Around 50% of Swedes are engaged in voluntary work; only in the US, Norway and Holland there are people as active as in Sweden (source: European Volunteer Centre – EVC – , Volunteering in Sweden. Facts and figures report, 2007). In 1995, volunteers represented the 28% of the adult population, amounting to 2,009,000 people (source: Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project; http://www.jhu.edu/cnp/PDF/table201.pdf; 1995 data).
The archetype for the Swedish volunteer is an already active man or woman (gender participation are more or less equal) in the middle of his career, who is generally well educated and comes from a rather affluent socio-economic background. The survey also highlights differences between men and women in the choice of area to volunteer. Older women are more likely to volunteer within church activities, while younger men tend to volunteer most in sports. The gender equality is not yet a reality within the sector: men dominate boards even in the organizations where women are the majority.
The major field for volunteering in Sweden is sport clubs. As the EVC research suggests, Swedish sport leaders volunteered on average 180 hours per year, which means more than 4 hours a week.
There is no law that directly establishes rights and duties for a volunteer in Sweden; however, for an unemployed person, volunteering may lead to a loss of the right to unemployment benefit as defined in the Law on Unemployment Insurance (Lagen om Arbetsloeshetsfoersaerkring ALF, 1997:238). The law aims at preventing the possibility for an unemployed person to volunteering full time and receiving an unemployment benefit.
