Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The aims of this survey series are to ascertain : the proportion of the population who are involved in voluntary activity in the UK; the type of people most likely to volunteer; the types of activities in which volunteers are engaged; the motivations for volunteering; the benefits and drawbacks of voluntary work.

The 1997 survey was carried out by BMRB International on behalf of the National Centre for Volunteering (formerly the Volunteer Centre). The need to compare trends in voluntary activity over time required that the survey was to a large extent a repeat of the previous surveys conducted by SCPR in 1981 and 1991, although some new topics were covered. A research project was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research in partnership with the Institute for Volunteering Research in 2006/7, as a follow-up to the Citizenship Survey, 2005. The resulting study, the National Survey of Volunteering and Charitable Giving, 2006-2007, is held at the UKDA under SN 5793.

Main Topics:

The survey covered the following subjects : working status; voluntary activity connected with work; marital status, disabilities and caring responsibilities; formal volunteering; organisation or group helped most, and most in past year (current and previous volunteers); barriers to volunteering and attitudes of irregular or former volunteers; informal volunteering; attitudes towards voluntary workers, and our society's attitudes towards them; receipt of voluntary help; donations. Users should note, a few variables on the questionnaire are not included in the dataset if they were used to create derived variables. There are many derived variables included (particularly in Section 4 of the questionnaire). Comparison of the topline and the questionnaire of the technical report is recommended for Section 4.

Multi-stage stratified random sample

CAPI was used.

Face-to-face interview