Volunteering in Europe

The extent of formal volunteering varies between European countries, depending on the available organisational setup and infrastructure to facilitate and encourage volunteering. Since the rules and incentives for registering voluntary organisations vary between Member States, however, comparing the extent of even solely formal volunteering across countries is difficult. Data from both Eurostat’s Standard Eurobarometer 2010 and Eurofound’s European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) cast more light on the phenomenon of volunteering.