CLICK THE SPONSORS' LOGOS FOR THE LATEST SPECIALS !D CENSUS DATA ON VOLUNTEERING IN QUEENSLAND IN 2006 Home Index Volunteering [Vlt] Vlt in Qld Vlt via Org Vlt Census 2006 Future Vlt Qld References Methodology Acknowledgements Glossary Charts - 4 Figures - 2 Tables - 13 Disclaimer Copyright THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF VOLUNTEERING IN QUEENSLAND Updated report — May 2008
A report commissioned by the Department of Communities
Queensland Government
AUSTRALIA
D CENSUS DATA ON VOLUNTEERING IN QUEENSLAND IN 2006 a Background
b The Census volunteering questions
a Background
In 2006, for the first time, the Australian Census of Population and Housing included
questions on voluntary work.
They were applicable to people aged 15 years and over, and were separate from the paid
labour force questions.
These Census questions covered the participation in both unorganised and organised
volunteering.
Participation in unorganised volunteering which included adult support and child support
was obtained through questions relating to “caring for a person who has a disability,
long-term illness or problems related to old age” (Question 49) and “caring for a
child/children (including own child or other child)” (Question 50).
The question on “voluntary work through/or for an organisation or group” (Question 51)
investigated the level of participation in organised volunteering.
In contrast to the 2006 Census of Population and Housing, the 2006 Voluntary Work
Survey was designed to present a comprehensive account of volunteers and their
volunteering activities.
As a result, information gleaned from this survey is different and significantly more
precise than voluntary work data available from other sources including the 2006 Census.
The differences in volunteering rates between the Voluntary Work Survey and the
Census may be due to the fact that the 2006 Census data were collected via a single
question on a self-completion Census form rather than by a series of questions asked by
trained interviewers.
Self-enumeration is considered to be less reliable than an interviewer asking questions
about voluntary work, often with examples, as many respondents may not consider or classify
their unpaid work as volunteering.
Despite its limitations with regard to the accuracy of volunteering rates when compared with
the Voluntary Work Survey, the Census data may be highly valuable in examining variations
in volunteering rates at the small area level, like the local government area or state
statistical region.
b The Census volunteering questions
Participation in unorganised voluntary work such as adult support and child support was examined
through Questions 49 and 50 in the 2006 Census.
Question 49 asked “In the last two weeks did the person spend time providing unpaid care, help
or assistance to family members or others because of a disability, long term illness or problems
related to old age?”
Question 50 asked “In the last two weeks did the person spend time looking after a child (aged
less than 15 years old) without pay?”
In contrast to the Census question related to voluntary work through an organisation (which asked
respondents about their organised volunteering over the last 12 month period), the Census questions
relating to unorganised volunteering elicited information about adult and child support over the
last two weeks.
As a result the numbers of volunteers and participation rates are lower than that which would be
obtained from questions which asked about volunteering for a longer period such as a month or a year.
For the 2006 Census question 49 on unorganised adult support volunteering the wording was:
In the last two weeks did the person spend time providing unpaid care, help or assistance to
family members or others because of a disability, long-term illness or problems related to old age?
1 Recipients of Carer Allowance or Carer Recipient should state that they provided unpaid care
2 Ad hoc help or assistance such as shopping, should only be included if the person needed this
support or assistance because of his/her condition
3 Do not include work done through a voluntary organization or group
Response : No did not provide unpaid care, help or assistance
Yes, did provide unpaid care, help or assistance
For the 2006 Census question 50 on unorganised child support volunteering the wording was:
In the last two weeks did the person spend time looking after a child without pay?
1 Only include children less than 15 years of age
2 Mark all applicable responses
Response: No
Yes, looked after my own child
Yes, looked after a child other than my own
The response rates for the Census questions were around the 90 to 91 per cent mark.
For question 49 (adult support volunteering) the non-response rate was 10.3 per cent, for question
50 (child support volunteering) the non-response rate was 9.5 per cent and for question 51
(volunteering through organisations) the non-response rate was 9.7 per cent.
Table 12 shows the Queensland data on unorganised volunteering from the 2006 Census.
For adult support the volunteer rate over the last two weeks was 10.6 per cent and for child support
8.9 per cent.
Rates for women were significantly higher for women than for men.
Volunteer rates did not vary greatly across the various statistical divisions of Queensland, however,
adult support rates were significantly lower for the 15–34 years age group.
Table 12: Census of Population and Housing,Unorganised Volunteering in Queensland, 2006
Volunteering over last two weeks
Adult Support Child Support
Population Population
Population Population who Volunteer Number of who Volunteer Number of
Group (000) answered Rate Volunteers answered Rate Volunteers
Population question % (000) question % (000)
(000) (000)
All Adults 15+ 3,098.0 2,783.7 10.6 293.7 2807.7 8.9 249.4
Women 1,576.5 1,426.6 12.8 183.3 1440.6 11.5 166.3
Men 1,521.5 1,357.1 8.1 110.4 1367.1 6.1 83.0
15-34 years old 1,062.8 958.3 6.0 57.5 963.9 7.2 69.6
35-64 years old 1,552.3 1,433.3 13.4 192.5 1444.1 9.9 143.2
65+ years old 482.9 392.1 11.2 43.7 399.7 9.1 36.5
Statistical
Division
Brisbane 1,404.4 1,275.3 10.6 134.7 1,285.6 9.3 119.1
Outside Brisbane 1,693.6 1,508.4 10.5 159.0 1,522.1 8.6 130.3
Central West 8.5 7.7 9.0 0.7 7.7 7.9 0.6
Darling Downs 166.4 151.9 11.4 17.3 153.1 9.2 14.0
Far North 178.9 156.7 10.2 16.0 158.2 9.3 14.7
Fitzroy 145.0 129.5 9.9 12.9 130.6 8.9 11.7
Gold Coast 392.2 344.9 9.9 34.1 348.1 8.0 27.9
Mackay 117.3 102.4 9.2 9.4 103.2 8.4 8.7
North West 22.9 19.4 7.9 1.5 19.6 9.3 1.8
Northern 153.7 138.3 10.0 13.8 139.6 9.2 12.8
South West 18.9 17.1 9.6 1.6 17.3 8.2 1.4
Sunshine Coast 222.3 201.6 10.8 21.8 203.1 8.4 17.1
West Moreton 53.6 48.0 12.7 6.1 48.5 8.8 4.3
Wide Bay Burnett 202.2 181.0 12.8 23.1 183.1 8.0 14.6
Other 11.7 9.9 7.2 0.7 10.0 6.5 0.7
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006 Census of Population and Housing,
Catalogue No. 2086.0, Census Tables Queensland (State).
Respondents in the 2006 Census were asked whether “in the last twelve months” they had spent
“any time doing voluntary work through an organisation or group?”.
Excluded was any voluntary work undertaken as part of paid employment or undertaken to qualify
for a government benefit or unpaid work done in a family business.
The wording was:
In the last twelve months did the person spend any time doing voluntary work
through an organization or group?
1 Exclude anything you do as part of your paid employment or to qualify for a Government
benefit.
2 Exclude working in family business
Response: No, did not do voluntary work
Yes, did voluntary work
Table 13 shows detailed data from the 2006 Census on organised volunteering in Queensland.
Table 13: Census of Population and Housing,Organised Volunteering in Queensland, 2006
Population Group Population Population
(000) who Annual Annual Number
answered Volunteer of
Volunteering Rate Volunteers
Question % (000)
(000)
All Adults 15+ 3,098.0 2,801.4 20% 568.2
Women 1,576.5 1,437.1 23% 331.9
Men 1,521.5 1,364.3 17% 236.4
15-34 years old 1,062.8 960.3 16% 156.4
35-64 years old 1,552.3 1,438.6 23% 334.0
65+ years old 482.9 402.5 19% 77.8
Statistical Division
Brisbane 1,404.4 1,282.3 19% 247.3
Outside Brisbane 1,693.6 1,519.2 21% 320.9
Central West 8.5 7.7 37% 2.8
South West 18.9 17.3 30% 5.1
Darling Downs 166.4 153.0 26% 39.3
West Moreton 53.6 48.5 24% 11.6
Wide Bay Burnett 202.2 183.0 23% 42.5
Fitzroy 145.0 130.4 23% 30.3
Sunshine Coast 222.3 202.8 22% 45.2
North West 22.9 19.4 22% 4.3
Northern 153.7 139.2 21% 28.7
Far North 178.9 157.8 21% 33.9
Mackay 117.3 102.9 20% 21.0
Gold Coast 392.2 347.3 16% 54.6
Other 11.7 10.0 14% 1.4
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006 Census of Population and Housing,
Catalogue No. 2086.0, Census Tables Queensland (State).
The accompanying Census maps show the distribution of the organised volunteering rates across
the statistical divisions of Queensland (Figure 1) and across the statistical local areas of Brisbane
(Figure 2).
Figure 1
PEOPLE WHO UNDERTOOK UNPAID VOLUNTARY WORK AS % PEOPLE AGED 15+ QUEENSLAND
Figure 2
PEOPLE WHO UNDERTOOK UNPAID VOLUNTARY WORK AS % PEOPLE AGED 15+ BRISBANE
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