Based on Statistics Canada’s Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating, 2023 (Table 45-10-0040-01)
Women are the majority contributors to volunteering in Canada, accounting for more than half of all volunteer hours despite representing roughly half the volunteer population. They have historically led men in participation rates, given more hours per volunteer, and anchored the organized, formal volunteering that sustains charities, community organizations, and social services across the country.
The 2023 Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating (SGVP) shows that this contribution is under strain in ways the top-line numbers do not immediately reveal. Volunteer rates fell for both genders between 2018 and 2023, but the depth of the decline for women, including a statistically significant drop in average hours that was not observed for men, and a near-reversal of the long-standing rate gap, points to structural pressures that the sector needs to understand and take seriously.
This blog examines six findings from the 2023 data that together tell the story of where women’s volunteering stands, and what it means for the organizations that depend on it.
1. Women contribute a disproportionate share of all volunteer hours
In 2023, women in Canada volunteered at an average of 188 hours per year, compared to 156 hours for men, and they made up approximately 54% of all volunteer hours contributed nationally despite representing roughly half the volunteer population. This disproportion is not a new phenomenon: in 2018, women gave an average of 238 hours per year, contributing an estimated 59% of all national volunteer hours, and they led men in participation rates in nearly every province.
| 188 hrs Women avg hrs/yr, 2023 | 156 hrs Men avg hrs/yr, 2023 | ~54% Women share of all hrs | ~59% Women share in 2018 |
The sector’s dependence on women’s disproportionate contribution is not simply a matter of more women volunteering: it is a matter of women giving meaningfully more hours per volunteer than men. That differential is what drives the hours share, and it is what makes the 2018 to 2023 decline so consequential.
2. Women’s average hours fell significantly; men’s did not
Between 2018 and 2023, women’s average annual volunteer hours fell from 238 to 188, a decline of 50 hours per volunteer, or 21%. This decline is statistically significant. Men’s average hours fell from 171 to 156 hours, a 15-hour, 9% decline that did not meet the threshold for statistical significance, meaning the data cannot confirm that men’s hours fell in a meaningful way.
| −50 hrs Women avg hrs decline | −21% Women avg hrs % decline | −15 hrs Men avg hrs decline | −9% Men avg hrs % decline |
The asymmetry between the two groups is significant for how the sector understands the overall hours decline. Nationally, volunteer hours fell from approximately 5,035 million to 4,149 million between 2018 and 2023. The burden of that loss falls overwhelmingly on women’s contribution, and the statistical evidence suggests it reflects a real and meaningful change in how much time women are bringing to volunteering, rather than sampling variation.
Women’s hours decline was statistically significant. Men’s was not. The two groups are not experiencing the same trend.
3. A long-standing rate advantage has reversed
In 2018, women volunteered at a rate of 80.2%, compared to 78.7% for men, and women led men in volunteer participation in nearly every province in Canada. By 2023, that gap had not only closed but effectively reversed: men’s national rate stood at 73.0%, while women’s had fallen to 72.4%, a difference of 0.6 percentage points in the other direction.
| 80.2% Women rate, 2018 | 72.4% Women rate, 2023 | 78.7% Men rate, 2018 | 73.0% Men rate, 2023 |
| −7.8 pp Women rate decline 2018-2023 | −5.7 pp Men rate decline 2018-2023 |
Women’s rate fell 7.8 percentage points over the five-year period, compared to 5.7 points for men, a difference of 2.1 percentage points in the pace of decline. In Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador, men now volunteer at higher rates than women, a reversal of a pattern that was consistent across provinces in 2018. This is not a marginal statistical shift but a meaningful structural change in participation that the aggregate national figure of 72.8% obscures.
| In 2018, women led men in volunteer participation in nearly every province. By 2023, the national rates had reversed. This is one of the most significant and least visible findings in the 2023 SGVP. |
4. Women accounted for 82% of all volunteer hours lost nationally
Between 2018 and 2023, female volunteers lost an estimated 730 million hours, falling from approximately 2,981 million to 2,251 million, a decline of 24.5%. Male volunteers lost an estimated 190 million hours, a 9.3% decline. Of the approximately 894 million hours lost from the national volunteer pool, women’s share of that loss was 82%.
| 2,981M Women total hrs, 2018 | 2,251M Women total hrs, 2023 | −730M Women hrs lost | 82% Women share of total loss |
Two compounding factors explain this concentration. First, women started the period with a higher average hourly contribution per volunteer, which meant a given percentage rate decline translated into more lost hours. Second, women’s rate decline was steeper than men’s, reducing the pool of women volunteering at all. The result is that the national hours decline is not a shared story between two groups: it is primarily a story about what happened to women’s contribution to the sector.
5. Formal volunteering collapsed, and women bore the larger share
Volunteering can be understood in two forms: formal volunteering through organizations such as charities, schools, sports clubs, and religious groups, and informal volunteering as direct help to individuals in the community. The 2023 data shows that formal volunteering experienced a far steeper decline than informal volunteering, and that the decline was more severe for women.
Women’s formal volunteer rate fell from 43.9% to 34.2%, a decline of 9.7 percentage points, compared to men’s formal rate which fell from 38.1% to 30.4%, a decline of 7.7 percentage points. In hours terms, women’s formal volunteer hours fell from 941 million to 622 million, a loss of 319 million hours and a 34% decline. Men’s formal hours fell from 711 million to 567 million, a 144-million-hour, 20% decline.
| 941M Women formal hrs, 2018 | 622M Women formal hrs, 2023 | −319M (−34%) Women formal decline | −144M (−20%) Men formal decline |
By contrast, men’s informal volunteer hours were nearly flat, falling by only 46 million hours over the five-year period. This divergence between formal and informal suggests that the structured, organizational infrastructure of the volunteer sector experienced a particular strain, and that women’s withdrawal from it was the dominant driver. The 463 million combined formal hours lost nationally represent a significant reduction in the organized capacity that volunteer-involving organizations rely on.
The organized, formal volunteer sector lost 463 million hours between 2018 and 2023. Women drove the majority of that loss, and men’s informal contribution held nearly steady.
6. The average overstates what a typical woman volunteer gives
The national average of 188 hours per year for female volunteers and 156 hours for male volunteers suggests a meaningful difference in individual commitment, but median hours tell a more grounded story. The median female volunteer gave 55 hours in 2023, compared to the median male volunteer who gave 44 hours, suggesting that while the gap between genders persists at the level of typical behaviour, both groups give far less than their respective averages imply.
| 188 hrs Women avg hrs, 2023 | 55 hrs Women median hrs, 2023 | 156 hrs Men avg hrs, 2023 | 44 hrs Men median hrs, 2023 |
The gap between average and median hours is 133 hours for women and 112 hours for men, both reflecting a concentration of total hours among a relatively small number of very high-commitment volunteers. For women, the median fell 26 hours between 2018 and 2023, from 81 to 55, a decline of 32%. The median fell faster than the average, which indicates that the pullback was not confined to high-hour outliers but was broad-based across the distribution: the typical female volunteer reduced their commitment substantially, not just those at the top of the hours scale.
This matters for planning because the average of 188 hours, used as a benchmark for what an individual female volunteer will contribute, overstates typical capacity by more than three times. Organizations that plan succession or capacity using average hours are likely to be disappointed by the reality of what most individual volunteers provide.
What this means for volunteer-involving organizations
The 2023 data on women’s volunteering is not a story about a demographic losing interest in civic participation. Women still contribute more hours per volunteer than men, still make up the majority of organized volunteer capacity, and still lead in formal volunteer rates despite the decline. The story is about the conditions under which that contribution is becoming harder to sustain, and about what the sector can do to support it.
- Track the rate gap, not just the overall rate. The convergence of men’s and women’s participation rates between 2018 and 2023 is a signal worth monitoring closely. If women’s rate continues to decline faster than men’s, the disproportionate hours contribution that the sector depends on will narrow further, and the aggregate national figure will not make that visible.
- Investigate your formal volunteer base. The formal volunteer sector lost 463 million hours nationally, with women driving the majority of that loss. Organizations that depend on structured, regular volunteer commitments should audit whether the same pattern is present in their own data, because waiting for the shift to become obvious may mean waiting until succession is already in crisis.
- Design with flexibility in mind. The steeper decline in women’s formal volunteering, relative to the near-flat informal figures for men, is consistent with the kinds of structural barriers, including caregiving responsibilities, scheduling constraints, and access to flexible roles, that research consistently identifies as more prevalent for women. Organizations that redesign volunteer roles to accommodate variable availability and shorter commitment windows are more likely to retain female volunteers during life stages when sustained commitment is difficult.
- Plan using median hours, not averages. With a median of 55 hours for women and 44 hours for men, and with the median having fallen faster than the average for both groups, organizations should recalibrate their expectations about what a typical volunteer will contribute. The average of 188 hours for women is accurate as a statistical mean, but it reflects a small number of very high-hour volunteers carrying a disproportionate share, and those individuals are at the same succession risk as high-hour older adult volunteers.
About the data
All data in this post draws from Statistics Canada’s Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating, 2023 (SGVP 2023) and the 2018 General Social Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating (GSS-GVP 2018), Table 45-10-0040-01, Canada overall. The data uses the overall definition of volunteering, which combines formal volunteering through organizations and informal volunteering as direct help to individuals. The 2023 SGVP was released November 21, 2025. The 2018 and 2023 cycles are the only currently comparable survey cycles.
The decline in men’s average hours was not statistically significant, while the decline in women’s average hours was. Statistical significance indicates a finding unlikely to be explained by sampling variation alone. All figures are for Canadians aged 15 and over across the ten provinces. Average and median hours are calculated among volunteers only, not the full population.
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