Youth volunteering is a major part of civic life, both through organized groups and through direct help to people and communities. Recent international estimates put volunteering at an enormous global scale, while Canadian surveys show especially high participation among people aged 15 to 24. The figures below distinguish formal and informal activity, participation rates and hours, and national survey results from program-specific results.
Contents
- Global scale of youth volunteering
- Canadian youth rates and hours in 2023
- How age groups compare
- Formal and informal volunteering
- Where Canadian youth volunteer
- Leadership and inclusion in Canada Service Corps
Global scale of youth volunteering
The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) describes volunteering as a widespread form of participation. Its youth-focused material reports that about 1 billion people worldwide are active volunteers. Around 1 in 3 young people globally report that they volunteer, corresponding to nearly 600 million young people. These are the latest estimates cited on the UNV youth and volunteering page, accessed in 2026. (UN Volunteers, “Youth and Volunteering”)
The measurement depends on how volunteering is defined and when it is measured. In the UNV 2022 estimates, almost 15% of people aged 15 and older volunteered in a typical month, equivalent to 862 million people. Informal volunteering involved 14.3% of the global population, while formal volunteering through an organization or association involved 6.5% of the world’s working-age population. (UNV, “Chapter 2 | UNV SWVR 2022”)
The 2026 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report gives a newer estimate based on a 2022–2025 average. It estimates that 2.1 billion people—about one in three working-age adults worldwide—engage in volunteer work each month. The same report describes a roughly 2:1 ratio of direct to organization-based volunteering worldwide. This estimate should be read as a different measurement series from the 2022 report, rather than as a simple increase in the number of volunteers. (UNV, “2026 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report”)
Canadian youth rates and hours in 2023
Statistics Canada’s 2023 table combines formal and informal volunteering in its total row and covers people aged 15 and older in the ten provinces. Under that combined definition, 81.1% of Canadians aged 15 to 24 volunteered in 2023. Volunteers in this age group contributed an average of 127 hours, while the median annual contribution was 40 hours. (Statistics Canada, “Volunteer rate and average annual volunteer hours, by definition of volunteering and age group”)
The average and median tell different stories. The median of 40 hours indicates the midpoint among young volunteers, while the average of 127 hours is higher because some volunteers contributed substantially more time. In total, people aged 15 to 24 accounted for 491 million volunteer hours in Canada in 2023. They represented 14.5% of the population covered by the table and supplied 11.8% of all recorded volunteer hours.
For context, the same table reports a 72.8% volunteer rate across all covered Canadians aged 15 and older. Volunteers in that total population contributed an average of 173 hours, and the median annual contribution was 50 hours. Canadians aged 15 and older contributed 4,149 million volunteer hours in 2023. The total row represents 100% of both the covered population and the recorded hours in the table.
The survey period matters. The 2023 Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating was collected from September 15, 2023, to March 30, 2024. Statistics Canada cautions that the 2023 and 2018 cycles are not comparable with earlier cycles, so these figures should be used as a description of the 2023 measurement rather than as a seamless long-term trend.
How age groups compare
The 15-to-24 age group had the highest volunteer rate among the listed Canadian age groups, but older volunteers reported more hours on average. The comparison below uses the same 2023 Statistics Canada table and its combined volunteering definition.
| Age group | Volunteer rate | Average annual hours among volunteers |
|---|---|---|
| 15–24 | 81.1% | 127 |
| 25–34 | 76.2% | 141 |
| 35–44 | 75.6% | 128 |
| 45–54 | 73.6% | 163 |
| 55–64 | 72.3% | 214 |
| 65–74 | 67.9% | 283 |
| 75 and older | 55.1% | 204 |
Among Canadians aged 25 to 34, the 2023 volunteer rate was 76.2%. Volunteers in that group averaged 141 hours, with a median of 40 hours. The group accounted for 601 million volunteer hours, represented 16.9% of the covered population, and supplied 14.5% of all volunteer hours.
The rate for ages 35 to 44 was 75.6%, and volunteers averaged 128 hours. For ages 45 to 54, the rate was 73.6% and the average was 163 hours. The rate for ages 55 to 64 was 72.3%, with an average of 214 hours. For ages 65 to 74, the rate was 67.9% and the average was 283 hours. Among people aged 75 and older, 55.1% volunteered and volunteers averaged 204 hours.
These results show why participation and time commitment should not be treated as the same indicator. Younger Canadians were more likely to volunteer than older age groups in this table, while the average hours among volunteers generally rose with age through the 65-to-74 group.
Formal and informal volunteering
An earlier Canadian youth study helps show the difference between organized service and direct community help. The 2018 General Social Survey article focused on youth aged 15 to 30 and reported a formal volunteer rate of 46%. The formal rate was 42% for men and 49% for women. (Statistics Canada, “Chapter 6: Political participation, civic engagement and caregiving among youth in Canada”)
Informal volunteering was more widespread in that 2018 measurement. More than three-quarters of Canadian youth aged 15 to 30, or 77%, engaged in informal volunteering. Seventy-four percent helped people directly, and 30% improved their community directly through activities such as maintaining public spaces or coordinating groups.
Some unpaid activity was connected to requirements. Sixteen percent of Canadian youth aged 15 to 30 were required to do unpaid activity by school or another requirement. Among youth aged 15 to 19 who were required to do unpaid activity, 31% reported that requirement. Of those required youth, 91% said the requirement came from school through graduation or co-op rules.
Because the 2018 study uses ages 15 to 30 and separates formal from informal volunteering, while the 2023 table uses ages 15 and older and combines the two in its total row, the figures should not be directly compared as a change over time.
Where Canadian youth volunteer
The 2018 youth study also identified the types of organizations receiving volunteers’ time. Among Canadian youth volunteers, 24% gave time to social-service organizations. Education and research organizations were cited by 22%, sports and recreation organizations by 18%, and religious organizations by 16%.
These percentages describe the reported destinations of youth volunteering in the 2018 study. They are useful for understanding the range of settings in which young people contribute, but they do not represent the complete share of all volunteer hours and should not be added as though they were mutually exclusive categories.
The pattern also fits the distinction between formal and informal activity. A young person may contribute through an organization, help a neighbour directly, or improve a shared public space. Measuring only registered organizational service would therefore omit much of the volunteering captured by the informal figures.
Leadership and inclusion in Canada Service Corps
Canada Service Corps program statistics provide a narrower view: they describe program participants, not all Canadian youth. Across fiscal years 2018–2019 through 2022–2023, Canada Service Corps expenditures totaled about $204.4 million. In fiscal years 2021–2022 and 2022–2023, 79% of 16,431 participants identified with at least one targeted under-served group. (Government of Canada, “Evaluation of the Canada Service Corps - 2018 to 2023”)
The program’s participant profile can be compared with broader population reference points. Indigenous youth represented about 7% of Canadian youth aged 15 to 24 in the 2021 Census, while 14% of Canada Service Corps participants identified as Indigenous. Visible-minority youth represented about 34% of Canadian youth aged 15 to 24, while 42% of participants identified as visible minority.
Rural residents made up about 18% of Canada’s total population, while 26% of Canada Service Corps participants identified as rural. About 16% of participants identified as 2SLGBTQ+, compared with about 7% of Canadian youth aged 15 to 34. These comparisons use the program evaluation’s stated reference populations and periods.
Age is another important part of the program picture. More than half of Canada Service Corps participants—about 56%—were aged 15 to 19 across the two reported fiscal years. In the 2022 Call for Proposals, 29% of funded organizations reported that at least half of their leadership was composed of youth aged 15 to 30.
Together, the program figures connect volunteering with leadership development and representation. They should not be generalized to the entire Canadian youth population, but they do show how one national service program measured participation among targeted groups and youth-led organizational leadership.