As well as helping others, volunteering has been shown to improve volunteers' wellbeing too.

It’s human nature to feel good after helping someone out. Volunteering can also help you gain valuable new skills and experiences, and boost your confidence.

If you’re interested in volunteering, here’s how to get started and some volunteering stories to inspire you.

• 16.3m people volunteered through a group, club or organisation in 2020/21.
• Most people have formally volunteered at some point in their lives, dipping in and out of involvement over time.
• Volunteering patterns changed substantially during the pandemic.
• Almost one in five (17%) people reported volunteering at least once a month, about 9.2m people.
• Less visible is informal volunteering, which includes a wider range of activities including unpaid help for someone who is not a relative. In 2020/21, 54% of the population (29.4m) volunteered informally at least once a year and 33% (17.9m) did so at least once a month.

Read the volunteering statistics from NCVO’s UK Civil Society Almanac 2021.