Main Stories
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In 2025, almost three-fifths of all young people (59%) had volunteered
during the previous 12 months.
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Almost a half of young people (48%) volunteered formally through a
group, club or organisation and a third (33%) volunteered informally in
their community.
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Girls were more likely than boys to volunteer (64% compared to 55%),
volunteer formally (53% and 43%) and volunteer informally (36% and 31%).
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Young people who were not entitled to free school meals were more likely
to volunteer than those who are entitled to free school meals (61%
compared with 52%) and volunteer formally (50% compared with 37%).
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Just under a quarter of young people who participated in formal
volunteering (23%) did so about once a week, with more than one in ten
(12%) doing so a few times a week.
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The top 5 most frequently cited benefits of having participated in
formal volunteering were “having fun”, “learning new skills”, “feeling
part of a team”, “increased confidence” and “making new friends”.
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Just over two-thirds (67%) of young people said they would be encouraged
to volunteer “If I could volunteer with my friends”.
Introduction
The Department for Communities (DfC) is the lead department for
volunteering. DfC is responsible for the development of voluntary and
community sector strategies and policies and both funds and works in
partnership with the sector.
Volunteering is the commitment of time and energy, undertaken freely and
without payment, for the benefit of society, the community, the
environment or people outside, or in addition to, a person’s immediate
family.
Formal volunteering means giving unpaid time to help a group, club or
organisation. Informal volunteering means giving unpaid help
independently, rather than through a group, club or organisation.
Examples include keeping in touch with someone at risk of loneliness,
picking up litter locally, or helping a neighbour with household tasks.
Help provided within the person’s own home or to a family member living
elsewhere is excluded.
This report presents the findings from the 2025 Young Persons’ Behaviour
and Attitudes Survey (YPBAS) in relation to experience of volunteering
by young people in Northern Ireland. These findings are used to inform
the development, monitoring and evaluation of policy. The questions
relating to volunteering were reviewed for the 2025 survey to improve
the collection of data on informal volunteering. As a result of changes
to the questions, definitions and survey content, the 2025 findings are
not directly comparable with findings from previous survey years.
More information relating to YPBAS, methodology, definitions and the
interpretation of the figures can be found in the Definitions & technical
notes section. Data tables are available in
Excel
and
ODS
format. The questions that were asked in YPBAS 2025 are available
here.
Lead statistician: Catriona McKevitt
Participation in volunteering
In 2025, almost three-fifths of all young people (59%) had volunteered
during the previous 12 months. This includes formal and informal
volunteering. Girls were more likely than boys to volunteer (64%
compared to 55%).
Pupils in Year 8 were more likely to have volunteered in the last year
than those in Years 9 and 10. Almost two-thirds (64%) of Year 8 pupils
had volunteered, compared with 56% of Year 9 pupils and 57% of Year 10
pupils.
Young people who were not entitled to free school meals were more likely
to volunteer than those who are entitled to free school meals (61%
compared with 52%).
Volunteering rates were similar across religious backgrounds. Around
three in five young people from the Protestant community (59%), the
Catholic community (59%) and those from other or no religious background
(60%) had volunteered in the previous 12 months.
Participation was also similar among young people with and without a
disability. Around three in five young people with a disability (62%)
and those without a disability (59%) had volunteered during the previous
12 months.
Benefits of volunteering
The top 5 most frequently cited benefits of having participated in
volunteering formally were “having fun” (78%), “learning new skills”
(45%), “feeling part of a team” (42%), “increased confidence” (42%) and
“making new friends” (36%).
There were differences between the proportions of boys and girls citing
various responses. Benefits cited by a higher proportion of girls than
boys included “having fun”, “feeling part of a team”, “increased
confidence”, “making new friends”, and “feeling I’ve made a difference”.
Volunteering inside and outside of school
Around two in every five young people volunteered formally in their own
spare time (41%), while around one in seven (14%) had volunteered
formally during school time. Three in every ten young people (30%) said
they did not volunteer but would like to do so in the future, while
almost a quarter (23%) said they did not volunteer and would not
consider doing so in the future.
Girls were more likely than boys to volunteer in their own spare time
(46% compared with 35%). Boys were twice as likely than girls to say
they did not volunteer and would not consider doing so in the future
(30% compared with 15%). Similar proportions of boys and girls
volunteered formally during school time (14% and 15% respectively).
When looking at formal volunteering during school time, the proportion
of pupils who had volunteered in the previous 12 months generally
decreased as year group increased, from 21% in Year 8 to 11% in Year 12.
Year 8 and Year 9 pupils (21% and 16%) were more likely than pupils in
all other year groups (12% to 11%) to have volunteered during school
time. The proportions were similar across Years 10 to 12. In addition,
young people with a disability were less likely to have participated in
formal volunteering during school time than those without a disability
(11% compared with 15%).
Differences in the proportions of young people who volunteered formally
in their own spare time were evident by free school meal entitlement.
Young people entitled to free school meals were less likely to
participate in formal volunteering in their own spare time than those
not entitled to free school meals (29% compared with 43%).
Young people entitled to free school meals were also more likely to
report that they did not volunteer and would not consider doing so in
the future (31% compared with 21%).
Factors that would encourage volunteering
The most frequently cited factors that would encourage young people to
participate more in volunteering were “if I could do it with my friends”
(67%), “if I could volunteer in something that interested me or was
important to me” (38%), “if I knew I would be making a difference”
(24%), “if I could do it with my family” (19%) and “if I knew I would be
appreciated” (19%).
There were differences between the proportions of boys and girls citing
various responses. Girls were more likely than boys to say that almost
all of the factors listed would encourage them to participate in
volunteering. The exceptions were “if I could do it with my family”
where the proportions were similar, and “nothing would encourage me”
which boys were almost three times as likely to state (19% and 7%,
respectively).
Definitions & technical notes
Young Persons’ Behaviour and Attitudes Survey
The Central Survey Unit of the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research
Agency was commissioned by a consortium of government departments and
public bodies to design, conduct and report on a study of the behaviour
and attitudes of young people in Northern Ireland. The Young Persons’
Behaviour and Attitudes Survey (YPBAS) is a school-based survey carried
out among 11-16 year olds and covers a wide range of topics relevant to
the lives of young people today. The main aim of the YPBAS is to gain an
insight into, and understanding of, their behaviour and lifestyle. It
also aims to influence various government policies and practices
relating to young people and to facilitate access to research findings
and expertise.
Questionnaire
Three versions of the questionnaire were used to accommodate demand for
topics on the 2025 survey. The content and structure of each
questionnaire was agreed in consultation with clients. Schools were
allocated one of the three questionnaire versions. A copy of the DfC
questions can be accessed at:
DfC
Questions on the Young Persons’ Behaviour and Attitudes Survey 2025
The questions relating to volunteering were reviewed for the 2025 survey
to improve the collection of data on informal volunteering. As a result
of changes to the questions, definitions and survey content, the 2025
findings are not directly comparable with findings from previous survey
years. The volunteering questions were included in Version A.
Sample and response rate
The Department of Education (DE) provided CSU with a list of all
post-primary schools in Northern Ireland (excluding independent schools
and those which catered solely for pupils with special needs). All 190
post-primary schools, were contacted and invited to participate. Ninety
schools agreed to participate in the study, resulting in a response rate
of 47%. One class in each of the five year groups (Years 8-12) was then
randomly selected to take part in the study. Fieldwork took place
between September 2025 and February 2026.
In total, 8,875 pupils took part in the 2025 survey. The main
volunteering indicators are based on 2,849 valid responses.
Weighting YPBAS
Analysis of the volunteering module of the YPBAS has been weighted for
non-response. A chi square goodness-of-fit test showed that the YPBAS
sample was not representative of the school population by year group,
sex and religion. As a result, weights were produced and applied
depending on the characteristic being analysed.
Non-response weighting sometimes increases standard errors, although the
impact tends to be fairly small, i.e. the adjustment may be less or
greater than 1, but will generally be reasonably close to 1.
While weighting for non-response (also called post-stratification)
should reduce bias, it must be acknowledged that it will not eliminate
bias. The reasons individuals choose to take part in surveys are complex
and depend on lots of factors specific to the individual. As a result,
the non-response biases in surveys are likely to be complex.
Post-stratification works on the assumption that, by aligning the survey
to the population along a small number of dimensions, many of these
complex biases will reduce. However, it would be misleading to suggest
that they will be eliminated.
Statistical significance in this report
The results presented in this report are based on data which has been
weighted by year group, gender and religion in order to reflect the
composition of the Northern Ireland post-primary population. Since a
three stage sample design was used: schools, classes and pupils, the
required assumption of random sampling was not met for significance
testing. In 2015, standard errors were calculated for some of the
variables in the survey using a formula for complex samples. However,
when these were compared with standard errors calculated using the
formula for random samples there was little difference (see
Technical
Report). Given those findings, and the methodology is consistent
with that used in 2015, tests of statistical significance in this
bulletin have been carried out using the formula for random samples.
Any statements in this report about differences between groups, such as
school year or free school meal entitlement, are statistically
significant at the 95% confidence level. This means that we can be 95%
confident that the differences between groups are actual differences and
have not just arisen by chance. Both the base numbers and the sizes of
the percentages have an effect on statistical significance. Therefore on
occasion, a difference between two groups may be statistically
significant while the same difference in percentage points between two
other groups may not be statistically significant. The reason for this
is because the larger the base numbers or the closer the percentages are
to 0 or 100, the smaller the standard errors. This leads to increased
precision of the estimates which increases the likelihood that the
difference between the proportions is actually significant and did not
just arise by chance.
Other notes
The following should be noted when interpreting figures and tables:
Percentages less than 0.5% are denoted by ‘0’ and where there are no
responses, they are denoted by ‘-’.
Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding.
Percentages may not add to 100% for questions where multiple responses
are allowed.
Detailed tabulations are not provided where the number of respondents is
too small to allow meaningful analysis.
The base number of responses to each question, which is shown in each
table, is the unweighted count. The base may vary due to some
respondents not answering certain questions.
Official Statistics
Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics
Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and
value in the
Code of
Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics
should adhere to. Contact us directly with any comments about how we
meet these standards -
email:analyticsdivision@communities-ni.gov.uk.
Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing
regulation@statistics.gov.uk
or via the OSR
website.
Definition
Volunteering — Volunteering is defined as ‘the commitment of time
and energy, for the benefit of society and the community, the
environment, or individuals outside (or in addition to) one’s immediate
family. It is unpaid and undertaken freely and by choice.’ This includes
formal volunteering with an organisation and informal volunteering in
the community
Formal Volunteering - Measures participation in unpaid voluntary
activity undertaken through groups, clubs or organisations during the
previous 12 months. Pupils who reported formal volunteering were asked
to identify the area(s) in which they volunteered:
Children or young people (in schools)
Children or youth groups (outside school)
Health, disability and wellbeing
Physical activity, sport and exercise (like coaching, organising or
otherwise helping out)
Local community or neighbourhood
Religion and belief
Hobbies and recreation
Groups aimed at supporting older people
Politics
Justice and human rights
Environmental protection
Emergency services, first aid and public safety
Culture and heritage
Animal welfare
Online volunteering
Other
Informal volunteering - Measures participation in unpaid
voluntary activity undertaken independently of any group, club or
organisation during the previous 12 months. Activities may include
providing support to others or contributing to environmental improvement
in the local area. Activities within the pupil’s own household and
assistance provided to family members living elsewhere are excluded.
