14.1% ▼ -20.7%
- 2011: 17.8%
- 2016: 19.0%
- 2021: 14.1%
Share of people aged 15+ who did voluntary work for an organisation or group.
Australia · Australia
Community Participation in Australia
How people contribute — volunteering, unpaid care and domestic work, and defence service.
Around 14.1% of people across Australia contribute their time as volunteers, though this is a drop from previous years. This snapshot of community life shows how Australians balance unpaid care and service roles within their daily routines.
Participation
Volunteering for organisations and groups.
Volunteering has declined over the last decade, falling 3.7 percentage points since 2011 to reach 14.1%.
Unpaid care & work
Caring for others and unpaid domestic work.
Unpaid care is common, with 26.3% of people caring for children and 20.7% doing over 15 hours of housework weekly, though both figures fell slightly since 2011. Meanwhile, the share of people providing other unpaid care rose 1.0 percentage points to 11.9%.
11.9% ▲ +9.1%
- 2011: 10.9%
- 2016: 11.3%
- 2021: 11.9%
Share of people aged 15+ who provided unpaid assistance to someone with a disability or due to old age.
26.3% ▼ -5.3%
- 2011: 27.8%
- 2016: 27.6%
- 2021: 26.3%
Share of people aged 15+ who provided unpaid child care.
20.7% ▼ -6.1%
- 2011: 22.0%
- 2016: 20.5%
- 2021: 20.7%
Share of people aged 15+ who did 15 hours or more of unpaid domestic work in the week before the Census.
Defence service
People who served in the Australian Defence Force.
Defence service is a small but present part of the population, with 2.8% of people having served in the Defence Force.
2.8%
Share of people aged 15+ who have ever served in the Australian Defence Force (currently or previously).
Sources
- Census of Population and Housing — Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021 (CC BY 4.0).
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Cite this page
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Community Participation in Australia [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/aus/AUS/australia/topic/community