International volunteering reached a substantial scale in 2025. The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) mobilized 17,169 UN Volunteers, serving across 172 assignment countries and representing 182 nationalities. These figures describe UNV’s programme rather than all international volunteering worldwide, but they provide a detailed view of how cross-border service is organized, who participates, and where volunteers contribute.
Contents
- Scale and recent growth
- Where volunteers serve
- Diversity and inclusion
- International volunteering and the SDGs
- UN partner programmes
- Online volunteering, learning, and experience
Scale and recent growth
UNV’s reported totals rose for three consecutive years. UNV mobilized 12,840 UN Volunteers in 2023, 4% more than in 2022. The total increased to 14,631 in 2024, 14% more than in 2023, and reached 17,169 in 2025, 17% more than in 2024. These year-specific growth rates are reported by UNV and should not be interpreted as a complete measure of the global volunteering sector.
The 2024 total was 77% above the pre-pandemic 2019 level. Looking across longer programme windows, UNV placed 23,400 volunteers during 2022–2024, compared with 18,512 during 2018–2021. The comparison indicates a larger recent placement volume, although the two periods cover different numbers of years and should not be treated as directly comparable annual averages.
| UNV reporting period | Volunteers mobilized | Reported change or comparison |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 12,840 | 4% above 2022 |
| 2024 | 14,631 | 14% above 2023; 77% above 2019 |
| 2025 | 17,169 | 17% above 2024 |
| 2022–2024 | 23,400 placed | Compared with 18,512 in 2018–2021 |
Sources: Annual Report 2023, Annual Report 2024, and Annual Report 2025.
Where volunteers serve
International and national volunteering operate together in UNV’s programme. In 2025, UNV recorded 3,804 international volunteers and 13,394 national volunteers. They represented 22% and 78% of the total, respectively. In 2024, the corresponding figures were 4,359 international volunteers and 10,314 national volunteers, or 30% and 70% of the total.
UN Volunteers served in 172 assignment countries in 2025, up from 169 in 2024. Volunteers represented 182 nationalities in 2025, compared with 180 in 2023. Volunteers from the Global South represented 93% of all UN Volunteers in 2025, an important scope note when interpreting the programme’s international profile: cross-border service is not synonymous with a predominantly Global North volunteer base.
The 2025 regional totals show how national and international placements combine in different settings:
| Region | International | National | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 2,054 | 3,239 | 5,281 |
| Arab States | 387 | 1,716 | 2,102 |
| Asia and the Pacific | 562 | 2,542 | 3,100 |
| Europe and Central Asia | 214 | 1,293 | 1,506 |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | 432 | 4,447 | 4,875 |
The regional counts are from UNV’s Statistical overview of UN Volunteers 2024–2025. They should be read as UNV placement data for 2025, not as estimates of every volunteer serving in each region. Sub-Saharan Africa recorded the largest listed total at 5,281, while Latin America and the Caribbean recorded 4,875, including 4,447 national volunteers.
Diversity and inclusion
Women accounted for 10,225 UN Volunteers in 2025, or 60% of the total. Men accounted for 6,916, or 40%. The average volunteer age was 33, and the reported age range extended from 18 to 80. The programme included 2,712 volunteers aged 18–24 and 248 volunteers aged 60 or above.
Age was associated with different role patterns in the 2025 figures. Community-based roles accounted for 78% of youth volunteers. Specialist roles accounted for 72% of volunteers aged 60 or above. These measures describe the distribution of roles within the age groups; they do not establish that age caused a volunteer to enter a particular type of assignment.
UNV enabled 325 volunteers with disabilities in 2025, representing 1.89% of all UN Volunteers. In 2024, UNV deployed 273 volunteers with disabilities across 26 UN partners, up 41% from 2023. The 2024 partner count and the 2025 total are different measures, so they should not be treated as a single-year trend line.
Together, the figures show several dimensions of participation: gender, age, disability inclusion, nationality, and role type. They also show why headline totals need context. A count of international volunteers alone does not capture national placements, the age distribution, or the ways that assignments are organized around community-based and specialist work.
International volunteering and the SDGs
In 2025, UN Volunteers contributed to all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The largest reported shares were associated with SDG 16, peace, justice and strong institutions, and SDG 5, gender equality, at 25% each. SDG 3, good health and well-being, accounted for 20%; SDG 17, partnerships for the goals, for 17%; and SDG 10, reduced inequalities, for 15%.
The 2024 distribution was similar in its leading areas but not identical. SDG 16 accounted for 27% and SDG 5 for 23%. SDG 3 accounted for 19%, while SDG 17 accounted for 17%. The percentages describe reported contribution areas and can overlap in interpretation across a programme serving multiple goals; they should not be added as though they were mutually exclusive volunteer categories.
The SDG figures connect volunteering with leadership and global exchange in practical terms. Assignments linked to institutions, gender equality, health, partnerships, and inequality reduction place volunteer service within broader development work. However, the percentages measure the reported SDG alignment of UNV assignments, not the percentage of each global goal achieved through volunteering.
UN partner programmes
UN partner programmes hosted volunteers at different scales in 2025. The United Nations Development Programme hosted 6,894 UN Volunteers in 137 countries. UNICEF hosted 2,181 in 130 countries. UN peacekeeping missions hosted 1,046, while UN special political missions hosted 327.
Some partner figures were reported with year-over-year changes. The International Organization for Migration hosted 518 UN Volunteers across 59 countries in 2025, 45% fewer than in 2024. The World Food Programme hosted 266 volunteers in 57 countries, 12% fewer than in 2024. These decreases are specific to the reported partner-programme counts and do not describe the direction of UNV’s overall total, which increased in 2025.
The 2024 report gives an additional programme comparison: the World Health Organization hosted 510 UN Volunteers in 82 countries in 2024, 7% fewer than in 2023. UNV’s Full Funding programme supported 861 fully funded UN Volunteers in 2025. The different figures reflect different partners and funding arrangements rather than alternative estimates of one common population.
| Partner or programme | Reported volunteers | Geography or scope | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| UNDP | 6,894 | 137 countries | 2025 |
| UNICEF | 2,181 | 130 countries | 2025 |
| UN peacekeeping missions | 1,046 | Programme total | 2025 |
| UN special political missions | 327 | Programme total | 2025 |
| Full Funding programme | 861 | Fully funded volunteers | 2025 |
These partner counts illustrate the operational range of international volunteering: development programming, children’s services, peacekeeping, political missions, migration, food assistance, health, and dedicated funding models all appear in the UNV reporting.
Online volunteering, learning, and experience
International volunteering increasingly includes online participation alongside in-person assignments. UNV received requests for 32,541 Online Volunteers in 2025, compared with 22,962 in 2024. In 2025, more than 1,000 Online Volunteers supported a campaign reaching over 500,000 people monthly. Nearly 2,000 Online Volunteers were mobilized across Asia and the Pacific, while more than 1,790 were mobilized across Europe and Central Asia.
The online figures are requests and mobilization counts reported by UNV; they are not a global census of digital volunteering. The wording “over 500,000 people monthly” is a reach measure for the campaign described in the Annual Report 2025, not a count of volunteers.
Learning and reported personal outcomes provide another view of the volunteer experience. In 2024, 11,269 UN Volunteers participated in 167 learning initiatives. Nearly 6,000 engaged in competency-based self-paced learning. In the same year, 92% reported enhanced personal and professional development from their assignments, and 89% said they were satisfied with their volunteering experience.
Deployment length also differed between international and national volunteers. The median deployment time for international UN Volunteers was 67 days in 2025, down from 76 days in 2024. The median for national UN Volunteers was 17 days in 2025, compared with a 29-day benchmark. These are medians, so they describe the midpoint of the reported deployment distributions rather than the typical duration of every assignment.
Taken together, the figures show international volunteering as a varied leadership and exchange pathway: it includes cross-border placements, national service, online contributions, structured learning, and assignments connected to global institutions. The most reliable comparisons remain those that keep the reporting year, geography, volunteer category, and measurement type explicit.