Switzerland: volunteer workforce

Switzerland has a population of 7.6 million people. Considering people aged 15 to 75+, 1.5 million people (25% of the entire population) regularly carry out volunteer work, of which 28% are men and 20% are women. It is important to highlight that these figures only concern organized volunteer work and that if informal volunteering – such as helping the neighbours, working for nursery schools or assisting family members- is considered the number of volunteers increases significantly as there are an estimated 1.3 million (21%) informal volonteers, of wich 26% are women and 15% are men.

Find out more about the different types of unpaid work: www.bfs.admin.ch

Volunteers are divided in 6 categories of ages.

– from 15 to 24 years old: in the organized volunteer work men are more represented than women with a 26.3% against a 17%. While in the informal voluntary the situation is opposite with a 11.7% of men involved against a 15.6% of women.

– from 25 to 39: in the organized voluntary men are 28.1% of the total voluntary force work while women are just the 20.4 % of it. In the informal voluntary instead women are more than men with a 25.6% against a 14.8%.

– from 40 to 54, it is the most important one in the organized voluntary because it represents the profile of a Swiss volunteer. In this age, men are the 32.7% and women are 25.6% of the total volunteer workforce which represent both the majority percentage of each gender. In the informal voluntary instead women are the 28.4% against a 14.8% of men.

– from 55 to 64: in the organized voluntary women are the 20.4% while men are 30.4%. in the informal one women are 32.2% and men just 17.2%

– from 65 to 74: in the organized voluntary men are 23,8% while women are 19,5%. In the informal one both men and women represent the majority of the total: 23.2% for men and 37.3% for women.

– from 75 years onwards: both in the organized and informal volunteer work the percentages are lower than the others. For the first one men are 13% and women are 9.8% while for the second one men are 11.9% and women are 11.9%.

Profile of a volunteer in the organized volunteer work: a 40-54 year old man.

Profile of a volunteer in the informal voluntary: a 64-74 year old woman.

Over the past 2 years the profile has changed. It’s more difficult to find people who want to commit themselves to the traditional areas (church, social work, disabled, pensioners, sick). There’s a lack of volunteers in these areas. They prefer to look for short-term service tied to specific projects. Young people are more interested in immigration or environment.

Voluntary work is nowadays seen as a good way of acquiring professional experience than an idealistic reason for which to give up their free time.

The education of a volunteer is generally high.

The hours of volunteering generally:

– half a day every week

(in 2000, 740 million hours were spent volunteering)

– 44 million hours every month

Hours a month for the organized volunteering

–13.8 for men

–12.3 for women

–13.2 for person on the average

Hours a month dedicated for the informal volunteering

–12.6 for men

–17.1 for women

–15.5 for person on the average

Trend of participation in the organized volunteering 1997-2007

–From 32% to 28% for men

–From 21% to 20% for women

–From 26% to 24% on the total

As we see, the trend of participation has deceased of 2% in 10 years.

Trend of participation in the informal volunteering 1997-2007

–From 17% to 15% for men

–From 29% to 26% for women

–From 23% to 21% on the total

Also in this category of volunteering, the trend is ascending.

Fields of volunteering in the organized volunteer work

–Sport associations: 11.4% for men, 5% for women

–Cultural associations: 5.8% for men, 3.9% for women

–Social charitable associations: 2.7 for men, 4.4% for women

–Religious institutes: 2.7% for men, 4.3% for women

–Associations de defense d’interets: 5.1% for men, 3% for women

–Political parties: 2.3% for men, 1% for women

The majority of both men and women is involved in sport associations.

Fields of informal volunteering:

–Relatives’ kindergarten: 3.7% for men, 8.2% for women

–Looking after adult family members: 0.6% for men, 1.8% for women

–Other care for family members: 3% for men, 3.5% for women

–Acquaintances’ kindergarten: 1.8% for men, 7.4% for women

–Looking after adult acquaintances: 0.5% for men, 1.5% for women

–Other services for acquaintances: 6.6% for men, 6.8% for women

–Other: 0.2% for men, 0.3% for women

Women prefer to volunteer in the kindergartens while men prefer to help acquaintance people like neighbours.

–Value of voluntary work

In 2000 it was estimated it was worth SFr27 million ($22 billion)

Average value 16$ a year according to the Swiss Federal Statistics Office

Voluntary work makes an enormous contribution to the wellbeing of Swiss society

–Unpaid services that people provide of

1.4 million people, from which mostly are women and pensioners. Young people between 15 and 24 years old are not included

–Trend of n of volunteers

Since 1997 it has remained fairly steady, only cultural work by men has decreased in popularity

Source: SSUP, observatoire bènèvolat 2006

Find out more: www.icvolunteers.org