Scope and trends of volunteering and associations

Abstract

This chapter has two themes: (1) the scope of formal and informal volunteering and of nonprofit, voluntary, membership associations (MAs) in the world, by which we mean the quantitative magnitudes of these phenomena at or near the present time, and (2) the long-term and recent (past few decades) trends in these magnitudes. Global data are used, when available, but we also report data for world regions and for specific nations when feasible. Besides such data, we also report on estimated magnitudes of association wealth and income, the economic value of volunteering, internal structures and processes of associations, participation rates in associations, and issues regarding computer mapping of data such as that presented in this chapter. Usable knowledge, future trends, and needed research are discussed.