26th November 2025
Fresh perspectives on volunteering: Why we analysed the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health and Wellbeing Survey 2022/23
“Thinking back over the last 12 months, have you given up any time to help any clubs, charities, campaigns or organisations in an unpaid capacity?”
This question enables us to explore volunteering patterns not only across Greater Glasgow and Clyde, but also within its individual geographies, including Local Authorities and Thriving Places. (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde – The Thriving Places programme is a place-based initiative led by Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) and the wider Community Planning Partnership. Its purpose is to reduce inequalities and improve health and wellbeing in neighbourhoods facing persistent disadvantage.)
As it mirrors the volunteering question asked in the Scottish Household Survey (SHS), the results can be directly compared with national data, offering valuable insight into how local volunteering aligns with or diverges from broader Scottish trends.
But comparability with the SHS is not the only reason we analyse this survey. Local surveys provide unique advantages that national surveys cannot always capture. In particular, the NHSGGC Health and Wellbeing Survey offers three distinct benefits:
- Scale – a larger sample size that strengthens local analysis.
- Deprivation Profile – coverage of some of Scotland’s most deprived areas, allowing us to explore how deprivation shapes volunteering.
- Depth – unique questions on social action and club membership that reveal how volunteering connects to wider civic life.
In the sections that follow, we explore each of these benefits in turn before drawing conclusions about what they mean for understanding volunteering in Scotland.
Volunteering data on a bigger scale
Volunteer Scotland’s primary source for analysing volunteering trends across Scotland is the Scottish Household Survey (SHS). With a sample size of around 10,500 households, the SHS provides valuable insights into participation rates across a wide range of demographic dimensions, including age, gender, income, education, religion, ethnicity, and levels of deprivation.
However, while the SHS is well suited for Scotland wide analysis, its usefulness at a local level is more limited. The sample sizes for each of Scotland’s 32 local authorities are relatively small, which makes it difficult to draw robust conclusions about volunteering patterns within individual areas, especially by demographic and social .
This is where the NHSGGC Health and Wellbeing Survey offers a distinct advantage. The number of households surveyed within Greater Glasgow and Clyde is significantly larger than the SHS sample for the same area. As a result, the NHSGGC survey provides a stronger evidence base for analysing volunteering locally, enabling more detailed exploration of differences across communities and geographies.
In short, larger samples don’t just give us more data—they give us better data. By reducing the influence of chance, they provide a clearer, more accurate picture of volunteering activity and allow us to understand local trends with greater confidence.
This stronger evidence base sets the stage for exploring how deprivation shapes volunteering locally.
Volunteering in our most deprivation communities
In Scotland, deprivation is measured by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), which ranks every small area (data zone) from most to least deprived based on factors such as income, employment, health, education, housing, crime, and access to services. These rankings are grouped into five equal parts, known as SIMD Quintiles (SIMD Q), with Q1 representing the most deprived areas and Q5 the least deprived.
At a national level, 20% of the population fall into each quintile. This balanced distribution makes it possible to analyse how deprivation influences volunteering across Scotland as a whole.
But local realities often look very different. In places like Glasgow City or Inverclyde, more than 20% of the population are concentrated in SIMD Q1—the most deprived group. This raises important questions: does the relationship between deprivation and volunteering shift when deprivation is more heavily concentrated?
And if we zoom in further to neighbourhoods such as Parkhead / Dalmarnock, where 86% of the population are in SIMD Q1 and the remaining 14% are in SIMD Q2, the picture becomes even starker. Here, deprivation is not just present—it is dominant. How does this shape opportunities to volunteer and do demographics and social indicators interact with volunteering differently in these contexts?
But deprivation is only part of the story — the kinds of questions asked also matter.
Looking deeper into volunteering trends
The NHSGGC Health and Wellbeing Survey adds depth to the national Scottish Household Survey (SHS) analysis by asking more direct questions about civic participation.
At the national level, the SHS measures social action indirectly, using statements such as “I can influence decisions affecting my local area” or “This is a neighbourhood where local people take action to help improve the neighbourhood.” These proxy measures give a broad sense of community engagement but don’t capture the specific actions people take.
Locally, the NHSGGC survey goes further. It asks adults directly: “In the last 12 months, have you taken any actions in an attempt to solve a problem affecting people in your local area? For example, contacted any media, organisation, council, councillor, MSP or MP, or organised a petition.” This sharper question provides richer insights into how social action connects with volunteering.
A similar pattern emerges with club membership. While the SHS can tell us whether people participate in sports or cultural activities, it doesn’t reveal whether this is through direct membership of a club or more individual involvement. The NHSGGC survey, however, asks: “Do you belong to any social clubs, associations, church groups or anything similar?” This allows us to explore the relationship between club membership and formal volunteering much more directly.
Together, these local questions highlight how volunteering is intertwined with wider forms of civic life — from taking action on local issues to belonging to clubs and associations. They show that volunteering is not just about giving time, but about being part of networks and communities that shape participation.
Together, these insights on scale, deprivation, and depth highlight why local surveys are so valuable, and they lead to some important conclusions.
Conclusions
The NHSGGC Health and Wellbeing Survey provides a unique opportunity to deepen our understanding of volunteering in Scotland. By combining scale, a sharper deprivation profile, and richer questions on social action and club membership, it complements the Scottish Household Survey and allows us to see volunteering through a more localised lens.
Some standout findings are:
- Formal volunteer participation in NHSGGC is 58% for adults who have undertaken social action in the past year compared to 14% for adults who have not taken social action.
- In Greater Gorbals (a Thriving Place where 55% of the population are in an SIMD Q1 area) formal volunteer participation rates are 48% for adults who have taken social action compared to an overall area formal volunteer participation rate of 13%.
- Formal participation rates are 41% for adults who belong to any social clubs, associations, church groups or anything similar and 11% for those that are not.
- In Greater Gorbals (formal volunteer participation rates are 31% for adults who belong to any social clubs, associations, church groups or anything similar compared to an overall area formal volunteer participation rate of 13%.
To see what new insights into volunteering our analysis found, read our highlights report or explore our thematic reports.
Debbie Maltman
Research Officer