The volume of voluntary activity is measured in hours spent volunteering – the input method. The source of information for this estimate is a module of questions placed on the National Statistics Omnibus in January and March 2001. This collected information on the number of people volunteering in the previous year and in the previous four weeks, the number of hours volunteered in the previous four weeks and the type of voluntary activity undertaken. Because not all volunteers are active at any one time, we have multiplied the number of volunteers in the previous 4 weeks by the average number of hours volunteered in the previous four weeks. These results have been estimated for three broad types of voluntary activity. The NS Omnibus samples the Great Britain adult (aged 16 and over) population, so the survey estimates have been grossed to the UK population using data derived from the Labour Force Survey, which exclude people living in institutions.

For further details, see Chapter 8 of the HHSA Methodology (downloads). See Sensitivity Analysis for results using median hours.

See Value for prices and value estimates.