Reference
Volunteer statistics 2026
Who volunteers, how much time they give, what an hour is worth, and why sign-ups fall short. Every figure below was checked against its original source, and each one links to it. Last checked October 8, 2026.
How many people volunteer
28.3% of Americans age 16 and older, about 75.7 million people, volunteered through an organization in the year ending September 2023.
U.S. Census Bureau and AmeriCorps, Civic Engagement and Volunteering Supplement · 2023
The formal volunteering rate was 30.3% in 2017 and 30.0% in 2019, fell to 23.2% in 2021, and recovered to 28.3% in 2023, still 1.7 points below 2019.
AmeriCorps, 2017-2023 CEV findings · 2017-2023
Formal volunteers gave an estimated 4.99 billion hours in the year ending September 2023, worth $167.2 billion.
AmeriCorps, Renewed Engagement in American Civic Life · 2023 · The dollar figure uses the 2023 hourly value ($33.49).
Volunteers give less time than they used to: a median of 24 hours a year in 2023, down from 40 hours in 2017. The average fell from 96.5 to 70 hours.
U.S. Census Bureau · 2017 and 2023
54.2% of Americans, about 137.5 million, informally helped neighbors in 2023, for example by running errands, house sitting or lending tools.
18% of formal volunteers served at least partly online in 2023. 82% served entirely in person.
U.S. Census Bureau · 2023
Utah had the highest formal volunteering rate in 2023 (46.6%), followed by Vermont (40.5%), Nebraska and Minnesota (40.3%). Rhode Island (18.5%) and Nevada (18.6%) had the lowest.
Asked a broader question in a December poll, 63% of U.S. adults said they had volunteered time to a religious or other nonprofit organization in the past year.
Gallup, Volunteerism Has Recovered From Pandemic Low · December 2025 · A different question from the Census measure. Don't compare the two.
What a volunteer hour is worth
One volunteer hour in the U.S. is worth an estimated $36.14, up 3.9% from the year before.
Independent Sector and the Do Good Institute, Value of Volunteer Time 2026 Report · 2025 value, released April 2026
That value has risen about 53% in ten years, from $23.56 in 2015.
Independent Sector, historic value of volunteer time · 2015-2025
By state, the 2025 value ranges from $54.77 in the District of Columbia to $28.39 in Mississippi. Washington is $42.98, California $41.75, New York $39.50, Texas $34.99 and Florida $34.88.
Independent Sector, Value of Volunteer Time 2026 Report · 2025
Who volunteers
All figures are U.S., age 16 and older, from the 2023 Census and AmeriCorps survey.
Parents of children under 18 volunteer more than people without children: 37.2% compared with 25.6%.
Generation X volunteers the most (32.3%), followed by Millennials (29.4%), Baby Boomers (27.7%) and Gen Z (24.5%).
Teens aged 16-17 volunteer at the highest rate of any age group (34.1%), followed by adults 45-54 (32.8%). Young adults 18-24 volunteer least among working-age adults (22.6%).
Women volunteered at a higher rate than men: 30.9% compared with 25.6%.
48.8% of people with a graduate degree volunteered, compared with 16.4% of high school graduates.
Parents, schools and PTAs
In the 2022-23 school year, 36% of K-12 students had a parent or household member who volunteered at school or served on a school committee, down from 43% in 2018-19.
NCES, Parent and Family Involvement in Education: 2023 · 2022-23 · This is a share of students, not of parents.
83% of K-12 students had a parent who attended a general school or PTA/PTO meeting, 74% a school or class event, and 52% took part in school fundraising.
NCES, Parent and Family Involvement in Education: 2023 · 2022-23
School volunteering is much higher at private and small schools: 62% of private-school students had a parent who volunteered, compared with 33% at public schools, and 46% at schools under 300 students compared with 28% at schools of 1,000 or more.
NCES, Parent and Family Involvement in Education: 2023 · 2022-23
Schools reach families mostly through school-wide newsletters, memos and emails, reported for 90% of K-12 students.
NCES, Parent and Family Involvement in Education: 2023 · 2022-23
National PTA says it has nearly 4 million members in more than 20,000 local units.
National PTA · undated
41% of U.S. Protestant churches helped a local public school with volunteers for school events in 2024.
Lifeway Research · 2024
Churches and faith communities
Religious organizations were the most common main place Americans volunteered: 33.1% of volunteers served mainly through one, rising to 42.7% of volunteers 65 and older.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Volunteering in the United States · 2015, the latest year measured
77% of U.S. Protestant pastors call developing leaders and volunteers a ministry difficulty, more than any other challenge they were asked about.
Lifeway Research, U.S. Pastors Identify Their Greatest Needs · 2021
Pastors estimate that on average 42% of their adults volunteer regularly at church, but 18% say fewer than 20% do, up from 13% in 2008.
Lifeway Research · 2022
66% of Protestant churchgoers who attend at least monthly said they had not volunteered for any charity, ministry or church in the previous year.
Lifeway Research, Most Churchgoers Say They Want to Serve, Fewer Actually Do · 2022
Food banks and pantries
About half (51%) of the agencies partnering with Feeding America food banks have no paid staff and run entirely on volunteers.
Feeding America, Hunger in America 2014 · 2013 data, the latest national study
In an average month, nearly 2 million volunteers gave more than 8.4 million hours to food programs in the Feeding America network.
Feeding America, Hunger in America 2014 · 2013 data
44% of food programs in the network reported some difficulty recruiting volunteers.
Feeding America, Hunger in America 2014 · 2013 data
Why sign-ups fall short, and who comes back
Among Americans with free time who want to get involved but don't, 54% say they are unsure how to start and 51% say no one invited or encouraged them.
Gallup and Kettering Foundation, Free Time Does Not Predict Americans' Community Involvement · 2025
46.8% of nonprofit CEOs said recruiting enough volunteers was a big problem in 2022, up from 29% in 2003. 38.4% said finding volunteers available during the workday was a big problem.
Do Good Institute, University of Maryland, The State of Volunteer Engagement · 2022
Occasional volunteers are the least likely to return: among those who served two weeks or less in a year, 52.8% came back the next year, compared with 78.6% of those who served 12 weeks or more.
Corporation for National and Community Service, Keeping Baby Boomers Volunteering · 2002-2006 data
Volunteers asked by the organization itself returned at a higher rate (70.5%) than those asked by their employer (53.9%).
Corporation for National and Community Service · 2002-2006 data
In Great Britain, people who hadn't volunteered in three years most often said they didn't want an ongoing commitment (33%). Flexibility over how much time they give would change their minds for 30%.
NCVO, Time Well Spent 2023 · 2022 fieldwork
Youth sports parents
61.6% of U.S. youth-sports parents volunteer with their child's teams or clubs, averaging 4.21 hours a week.
The most common role is team parent, held by 43.6% of all sports parents surveyed. 16.4% work concessions or tickets and 14.5% coach.
Aspen Institute, 2024 Parenting Survey · 2024 · Shares of all parents surveyed, not of volunteers.
Other countries
England: 17% of adults volunteered formally at least once a month in 2024/25 and 28% at least once a year, down from 27% and 45% in 2013/14.
Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Community Life Survey 2024/25 · 2024/25
Australia: 23% of people aged 15 and older did unpaid voluntary work through an organization in 2025, giving 618 million hours.
Australian Bureau of Statistics, General Social Survey 2025 · 2025
Canada: 32% of people aged 15 and older volunteered formally in 2023, down from 41% in 2018. The top 10% of volunteers gave 61% of all volunteer hours.
Statistics Canada, Volunteering and charitable giving in Canada, 2018 to 2023 · 2023
New Zealand: 27.6% of people aged 15 and older volunteered through an organization in the previous four weeks.
Stats NZ, Wellbeing statistics: 2023 · 2023-24 · A four-week period, so not comparable with annual rates.
What we see on our own sign-up pages
An early, small sample: 326 sign-ups by 214 volunteers on 44 pages run by schools, PTAs, churches and nonprofits on JustSignup, September to October 2026. Demo and test pages are excluded. Treat these as directional, not national figures.
- 65%of sign-ups for dated shifts came one to four weeks ahead. Only 7% came in the last 48 hours.
- 92%of volunteers kept email reminders on. The box starts ticked on most pages, and they could untick it.
- 30%of volunteers signed up for more than one spot with the same organizer.
- 10%of sign-ups were cancelled. About one cancellation in five came within 48 hours of the shift.
- Mondaywas the busiest day to sign up (22% of sign-ups) and Friday the quietest (6%).
We'll update this section as the sample grows.
Commonly misquoted
- "23.2% of Americans volunteer"
- That is the 2021 pandemic low. The current figure is 28.3% (2023 data). The old summary PDF is still online, which is why the 2021 number keeps being quoted.
- "63% of Americans volunteer" next to "28% volunteer"
- These come from different questions (a Gallup poll and the Census survey). Neither corrects the other.
- "$36.14 is the 2026 value of a volunteer hour"
- It was released in 2026 but describes 2025.
- "36% of parents volunteer at school"
- NCES reports the share of K-12 students whose parent volunteered, not the share of parents.
- "Most volunteers start because someone asked them"
- The last federal measure (2015) found 41.2% joined because they were asked and 41.6% approached the organization themselves. The current, well-supported claim is narrower: 51% of would-be volunteers say no one invited them.
- "One-third of volunteers don't come back"
- This rests on federal analysis of 2002-2007 data. No agency has published a newer national retention estimate.
Where good data doesn't exist
- Shift no-show rates: no national primary source. Figures online come from software vendors without a named survey.
- How volunteers sign up (online forms, apps, texts): not measured nationally.
- PTO counts: there is no official count of independent PTOs.
- Recent data on church volunteering's share of the total (the last official figure is from 2015) and on food bank volunteers (2013).
Citing this page
You're welcome to use these figures. Please cite the original source for each one, and link here if this page helped:
JustSignup, “Volunteer statistics 2026,” justsignup.io/volunteer-statistics, updated October 8, 2026.
Spotted an error or a newer edition? Email support@justsignup.io and we'll fix it.
Run volunteer sign-ups people actually finish
JustSignup puts every shift on one link. Volunteers sign up from a phone without an account and get a reminder before their shift. Your first page is free.