Scottish Household Survey 2020 - Volunteering
A summary of the key findings from the Scottish Household Survey 2020 telephone survey. Themes covered: Childcare; Culture; Environment; Finance; Housing; Internet; Neighbourhoods; Physical Activity; Public Services; Volunteering.
The key Volunteering highlights:
· 64% of adults had taken part in formal or informal volunteering in the last 12 months. 66% of women and 61% of men had taken part in formal or informal volunteering in the last 12 months.
· 56% of adults took part in informal volunteering in the last 12 months (59% of women and 53% of men). 26% of adults took part in formal volunteering (25% of women and 26% of men).
· Adults living in the 20% least deprived areas were more likely to have undertaken formal volunteering in the previous 12 months (29%) than adults living in the 20% most deprived areas (14%). The same was true for informal volunteering, with 60% of adults in the 20% least deprived areas taking part in informal volunteering in the last 12 months, compared with 47% of adults in the 20% most deprived areas.
· Adults living in remote rural areas were more likely to have undertaken formal volunteering (38%), compared with adults living in large urban areas (25%).
· While no direct comparisons with SHS 2018 results are possible, there was a big change around informal volunteering. The proportion of adults who took part in formal volunteering remained the same (26% of adults saying they took part in formal volunteering in SHS 2018, SHS 2019 and SHS 2020), but the number of adults saying they took part in informal volunteering (56%) has increased by a lot (36% of adults said they took part in informal volunteering in SHS 2018). However, it is difficult to say if this increase is due to COVID-19 pandemic or due to the changes in the profile of SHS 2020 respondents, with home-owners and people with degree-level qualifications over-represented.
Note: The results of the SHS 2020 telephone survey are not directly comparable to SHS results for previous years due to changes in the research method, sample size and timing (primarily due to Covid). The SHS results for 2020 were published on 28 January 2022. "Around 3,000 households were interviewed for the SHS 2020 telephone survey, compared to around 10,500 for the SHS 2019. Due to the smaller sample size, we are not be able to provide 2020 data broken down in as many ways as usual. For example, we are not able to provide data for individual local authorities."
