We recently published a new paper on the true economic contribution of civil society to the UK economy. (Spoiler alert: it’s big! At least £40 billion.)
Among the many new stats in that report, there’s an important one that you might not immediately notice. Here it is: “Civil society contributed 726 million total paid hours to the UK economy in 2024, and an additional 688 million unpaid (volunteer) hours.” That’s a lot of hours. It is also a bit of a landmark. Why? Because for the first time, our estimates of paid hours exceeded those of volunteer hours.
This is the continuation of a long-term trend. Back in 2005, our estimates suggest that paid employees in civil society contributed just under a quarter (24%) of the total hours worked in the sector – the rest was volunteer time. Fast forward to 2024 and the contribution of paid employees had more than doubled. This is the result of two factors: the estimated number of paid hours worked in civil society has been steadily increasing (other than a Covid-era dip) for many years. And volunteer hours, having hovered around the 1bn mark for years, were slashed almost in half in 2020.
Since 2020 we estimate that paid employees and volunteers have been working roughly an equal number of hours in the sector.
Let’s pause on this. It may sound like just another statistic, but it quietly suggests a significant shift in how the sector operates. And maybe even how we understand it.
At the heart of civil society is voluntarism.
A distinguishing feature of civil society is the voluntary component to many of its activities. That’s a key part of how civil society creates social capital, builds trust and connects communities. Without it, much of civil society just wouldn’t work.
But voluntarism isn’t simply a matter of ‘formal’ volunteering for charity.
While voluntarism is often associated with people giving their time, it’s also about people giving other resources, like money. (Financial donations give organisations important freedoms, meaning they can respond to social need). And on that front, voluntarism is playing an increasingly important role in the charity sector. According to the latest NCVO Civil Society Almanac, in 2021/22, voluntary and earned income were almost equally split – 46% and 45% of total income respectively (investment income makes up the rest). But while volunteering hours have been steadily falling over the past decade, voluntary income as a share of total charity income has been rising since 2012.
It’s also worth considering whether, rather than simply declining, voluntarism is evolving. A large part of the picture depends on how we define and measure volunteering. Our estimate of 688 million volunteer hours in the sector comes from the government’s Community Life Survey’s data on regular volunteering through organisations. But look at this blog from Janet Thorne at Reach Volunteering. She argues that a shift is underway in how and why people volunteer, leading to a different kind of volunteering thriving in grassroots, volunteer-led organisations with no staff at all. This kind of activity might be flourishing, but it can be harder to count.
That said, broader measures of civic participation don’t paint a glowing picture. Informal volunteering (helping neighbours or community members) saw a Covid-era bump, but the longer trend is downward – from 31% doing so monthly in 2013/14 to just 24% in 2022/23. Meanwhile, the proportion of adults who engaged in civic activism at least once in the last 12 months has sat at around 8% since 2016.
So undeniably, some forms of volunteering are waning. But perhaps others are shifting under the radar.
Even if voluntarism is changing, is that such a bad thing?
This depends on what we think civil society is and what it’s for. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s 2018 civil society strategy (under the previous government) offered this definition of civil society:
“Individuals and organisations when they act with the primary purpose of creating social value, independent of state control. By social value, we mean enriched lives and a fairer society for all.”
Voluntarism is important. But social value, purpose and independence are defining features of civil society too. They mean it can advocate and agitate. And they mean it can respond to need, rather than market demand. Volunteering has traditionally been a vital expression of all of this. But as the sector professionalises, is that connection weakening or simply taking a different form? Wherever you stand on this, we may be at something of a crossroads. With our estimates suggesting paid labour hours now equal volunteer hours in the sector, we have passed a watershed moment: do we need to slow the tide and re-emphasise volunteering, or do we accept that the sector is becoming more professional? We don’t pretend to have the answer here, but we do think it’s a question worth sitting with. At the very least, let’s not let it drift past unnoticed.