The volunteering crisis: is the UK running out of volunteers?

The debate in brief

The proportion of adults in England who formally volunteer at least once a year has fallen from 45% in 2013/14 to 28% in 2024/25, according to the government's Community Life Survey. Monthly formal volunteering has dropped from 27% to 17% over the same period. Charities across the country report growing difficulty recruiting and retaining volunteers, and the Centre for Ageing Better estimates that 110 million hours of volunteering by older people have been lost annually since the pandemic.

Quick takeaways

But a growing body of evidence suggests the crisis narrative misses something important. Grassroots, volunteer-led organisations are multiplying. Younger volunteers are arriving in large numbers, though on different terms. The average age of a new British Heart Foundation volunteer is now 30, down from 50 before the pandemic. What looks like a decline may be, in part, a structural shift — one that traditional measures of formal volunteering are poorly equipped to capture.

The arguments

The case that volunteering is in serious decline

The long-term data is stark. The Community Life Survey, the government's primary measure of civic participation in England, shows formal volunteering falling steadily for a decade. The pandemic accelerated the decline, and recovery has been minimal. Among people aged 50 to 64 — historically the backbone of the volunteer workforce — monthly formal volunteering has fallen from 23% pre-pandemic to 16%, with almost no recovery since (Centre for Ageing Better, State of Ageing 2025). The economic value of those lost hours among over-50s alone could be as high as four billion pounds a year.

The cost-of-living crisis compounds the problem. In the most deprived areas of England, 17% of non-volunteers cite financial costs as a barrier to volunteering, compared with 10% in the least deprived areas (Community Life Survey, 2024/25). When people need to work more hours to cover rising bills, giving time for free becomes a luxury. Four in ten charities report they cannot recruit enough volunteers to meet their objectives, and NCVO's research found that 79% of charities have at least one vacant board position, with 61% having vacancies lasting more than six months — and 85% report finding board recruitment difficult.

The strongest objection to this case is that the Community Life Survey measures formal volunteering through organisations, and may undercount the informal, episodic, and digital volunteering that is growing.

The case that volunteering is changing, not dying

Janet Thorne, chief executive of Reach Volunteering, has argued that what we are witnessing is "not the death of volunteering" but "a profound shift in how and why people volunteer." Her organisation added more than 16,000 new volunteers in 2024 and has seen an extraordinary growth in volunteer-led organisations — groups with no paid staff at all. In 2019, just 69 such groups used Reach; by 2024, there were 650.

The generational picture is particularly striking. Save the Children reported that 42% of new shop volunteers in 2025 were aged 18 to 24, up from 28% in 2021. The British Heart Foundation found that 53% of its volunteer recruits were aged 16 to 24, and that volunteers across all age groups are choosing ad hoc, flexible shifts over traditional regular commitments. This is not apathy — it is a different model, one built around flexibility, shorter commitments, and immediate impact rather than long-term institutional loyalty.

The weakness in this argument is that flexible micro-volunteering, however welcome, does not easily replace the sustained, skilled, regular volunteering that many charities depend on to deliver services. A food bank rota, a Samaritans helpline, or a hospice visiting programme needs people who show up at the same time every week.

The middle ground: a two-speed volunteering landscape

The most honest reading of the evidence is that both things are true simultaneously. Traditional formal volunteering — regular, committed, often older — is in genuine decline, driven by post-pandemic withdrawal, cost-of-living pressures, and demographic change. At the same time, new forms of volunteering — episodic, digital, grassroots, younger — are growing, but not in ways that straightforwardly replace what has been lost. The result is a two-speed landscape where some charities are overwhelmed with enthusiastic young volunteers and others cannot fill their rotas at any price.

The evidence

The Community Life Survey, published annually by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, is the primary data source. It shows annual formal volunteering participation falling from 45% in 2013/14 to 28% in 2024/25, and monthly formal volunteering from 27% to 17% over the same period (GOV.UK, 2025). These figures cover England only and measure volunteering through groups, clubs, or organisations.

The Centre for Ageing Better's State of Ageing 2025 report found that 1.16 million fewer people aged 50 and over are formally volunteering compared with 2019, equating to 110 million lost volunteering hours per year. Significantly, only one in eight older people who stopped volunteering cited Covid restrictions as the reason — twice as many pointed to changing home or work circumstances, suggesting cost-of-living pressures are a continuing factor.

NCVO's Time Well Spent 2023 survey found that 92% of current volunteers are satisfied with their experience, but flagged warning signs: 35% agreed there is too much bureaucracy, and 26% said their volunteering feels too much like paid work, up from 19% in 2018. Public sector volunteers were notably less satisfied than those volunteering in the third sector (87% versus 94%).

The Royal Voluntary Service, working with the Centre for Economics and Business Research, estimated in 2025 that fully utilising employer-supported volunteering days could generate productivity gains worth 32.5 billion pounds for the UK economy — but more than 140 million gifted hours went unused in the previous year.

One significant gap in the evidence is that the Community Life Survey does not capture micro-volunteering, one-off digital tasks, or informal community help through platforms outside traditional organisational structures. This means the headline figures almost certainly understate total volunteering activity, though by how much is unknown.

Current context

The Vision for Volunteering, a ten-year collaborative initiative launched in 2022 by NCVO, Volunteering Matters, the Association of Volunteer Managers, NAVCA, and Sport England, is now at its midpoint. It aims to make England "the best place in the world to be a volunteer" by 2032, with a focus on equity, inclusion, flexibility, and experimentation. The government contributed 600,000 pounds to the initiative.

Meanwhile, the employer NIC increase announced in the 2024 Autumn Budget has tightened charity finances further, with many organisations reporting that they are simultaneously needing more volunteers (because they cannot afford paid staff) and less able to invest in volunteer coordination and support. The VCSE Barometer Survey, cited in NCVO's Road Ahead 2025 report, found that 68% of organisations expect to depend more on unpaid help due to financial uncertainty — up significantly from previous years.

The charity sector faces a paradox: the financial pressures that make volunteers more essential than ever are the same pressures that make it harder for people to volunteer and harder for charities to support them well.

Last updated: April 2026

What this means for charities

Charities that still treat volunteering as a single, uniform thing — recruit people, give them a role, hope they stay — will increasingly struggle. The evidence points clearly toward a split: some volunteers want deep, sustained, skilled engagement, while a growing number want short, flexible, low-commitment contributions. Designing for both requires different infrastructure, different communication, and different expectations.

The cost-of-living dimension matters practically: charities that reimburse expenses promptly and fully will have a recruitment advantage over those that expect volunteers to absorb costs. This is not generosity — it is basic accessibility.

For organisations that depend heavily on older volunteers, the post-pandemic shortfall is not a blip. The Centre for Ageing Better data suggests these volunteers are not coming back in previous numbers. Planning for this means actively recruiting from demographics you have not traditionally reached, which in turn means rethinking role design, scheduling, and organisational culture.

The bureaucracy finding from NCVO's Time Well Spent research deserves particular attention. If more than a third of your volunteers think there is too much paperwork, and a quarter feel their volunteering has become too much like a job, the problem may not be recruitment — it may be retention.

Common questions

How many people volunteer in the UK?

According to the government's Community Life Survey, 28% of adults in England volunteered formally at least once in 2024/25 — down from 45% in 2013/14. Monthly formal volunteering stood at 17%, compared with 27% a decade earlier. These figures cover volunteering through groups, clubs, or organisations in England only, and do not capture informal or digital volunteering, which means total volunteering activity is likely higher than the headline figures suggest.

Why is formal volunteering declining?

The evidence points to several overlapping causes. The pandemic triggered a large withdrawal of older volunteers, and recovery has been minimal — among 50-to-64-year-olds, monthly formal volunteering fell from 23% to 16% with almost no rebound. Cost-of-living pressures are a continuing factor: in the most deprived areas of England, 17% of non-volunteers cite financial cost as a barrier. Within charities, bureaucracy is a retention problem: NCVO's Time Well Spent 2023 found that 35% of current volunteers think there is too much paperwork, and 26% say their volunteering feels too much like paid work — up from 19% in 2018.

Are young people volunteering more?

Yes, and the shift is striking. The average age of a new British Heart Foundation volunteer is now 30, down from 50 before the pandemic, and 53% of its volunteer recruits are aged 16 to 24. At Save the Children, 42% of new shop volunteers in 2025 were aged 18 to 24, up from 28% in 2021. Younger volunteers typically prefer ad hoc, flexible, short-commitment arrangements over traditional regular rotas. Reach Volunteering added more than 16,000 new volunteers in 2024, and saw the number of volunteer-led organisations using its platform rise from 69 in 2019 to 650 in 2024.

What is the economic value of volunteering?

The Centre for Ageing Better estimates that the volunteering hours lost among over-50s since the pandemic are worth as much as £4 billion per year. More broadly, the Royal Voluntary Service and the Centre for Economics and Business Research calculated in 2025 that fully utilising employer-supported volunteering days could generate productivity gains worth £32.5 billion for the UK economy — but more than 140 million gifted employer hours went unused in the previous year alone.

What can charities do about the volunteering shortage?

The evidence suggests three practical priorities. First, design for two types of volunteer: those who want deep, sustained, skilled engagement, and those who want short, flexible, low-commitment contributions — because the same infrastructure will not serve both. Second, reimburse expenses promptly and fully, since financial barriers disproportionately affect volunteers in deprived areas. Third, reduce unnecessary bureaucracy: if more than a third of your volunteers think there is too much paperwork, the problem is likely retention as much as recruitment. For organisations heavily dependent on older volunteers, the Centre for Ageing Better data suggests the post-pandemic shortfall is structural rather than temporary, making active recruitment from younger demographics a strategic necessity rather than an option.

Key sources and further reading

• Community Life Survey 2024/25: Volunteering and Charitable Giving — Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2025. The primary government data source on volunteering participation in England, with year-on-year trend data back to 2013/14.

• Time Well Spent 2023 — NCVO, 2023. The most comprehensive survey of the volunteer experience in England, covering satisfaction, barriers, bureaucracy, and retention across different demographics and settings.

• State of Ageing 2025 — Centre for Ageing Better, 2025. Quantifies the post-pandemic loss of older volunteers at 1.16 million people and 110 million hours annually, with analysis of the causes.

• The Road Ahead 2025 — NCVO, 2025. Annual analysis of challenges and opportunities facing the voluntary sector, including the financial pressures driving increased dependence on volunteers.

• Volunteering is thriving — just not where you've been looking — Janet Thorne, Third Sector, 2024. The counter-narrative from the chief executive of Reach Volunteering, presenting evidence of growth in volunteer-led organisations and grassroots participation.

• Untapped Impact: Unlocking the 140 Million Opportunity — Royal Voluntary Service / Cebr, 2025. Research quantifying the economic potential of employer-supported volunteering and the scale of unused gifted time.

• Vision for Volunteering — NCVO, Volunteering Matters, AVM, NAVCA, Sport England, 2022. The ten-year collaborative framework aiming to transform volunteering in England by 2032.

• Contribution of Volunteers — House of Commons Library, CDP 2024-0086, 2024. Briefing paper prepared for the Westminster Hall debate on volunteering, summarising key data and policy context.