An estimated 14.2m people (27% of people) volunteered through a group, club or organisation in 2021/22. This is down from 16.3 (30%) million in 2020/21, and 20m (37%) in 2019/20.

This is the first year that NCVO has included data on charity vacancies and salary levels, produced in partnership with CharityJob. In the longer term, government income has broadly plateaued over the last decade, while falling as a proportion of total income, as organisations have increased their funding from alternate sources.

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saw a UK-wide candidate-driven job market. Increased vacancies and fewer candidates resulted in a decrease in demand for jobs, making it harder for charities to recruit. In 2021/22, 46% of the population (an estimated 25m) volunteered informally at least once and 26% (14.2m) did so at least once a month. People aged between 65 and 74 are the age group most likely to volunteer, both formally and informally, on a regular basis. Formal volunteering for this age group is twice the rate of those aged between 25 and 34.

Government funding is the second largest income source for the voluntary sector, behind the public. There was a slight increase in the amount of government funding for the sector in the year to 2020/21, reversing the previous year’s decrease. Larger organisations receive much more income from government than smaller ones. The social services sector in particular receives a large amount of funding from government, both in absolute terms and as a proportion of income.People aged over 65 have maintained their levels of formal volunteering since 2020/21, while participation in all other age groups has dropped. Volunteering participation varies by ethnicity, but different data sources tell different stories. Women and disabled people are relatively more likely to volunteer informally, with no differences by gender or disability for formal volunteering.

Those living in the least deprived areas are twice as likely to have volunteered formally at least monthly than those in the most deprived areas, reflected in higher levels of regular volunteering in the more affluent south of England. Informal volunteering (which includes giving unpaid help without being involved in groups, clubs, or organisations) is less visible.Medium charities pay the least on average at all experience levels, even when compared to micro and small charities, although there has been a slight decrease in salaries for micro and small charities since 2019.

While levels of formal volunteering had remained largely unchanged from 2015/16 to 2019/20, they dropped sharply at the start of the pandemic in 2020/21, but the rate of decline has now slowed. Volunteering at least monthly was maintained at 16%, with little further decline in 2021/22 after the sharp drop from 23% in 2019/20 to 17% in 2020/21.