Scottish Household Survey (SHS)

It collects data on a wide range of topics through face-to-face, in-home interviews. This includes annual questions on formal volunteering and, since 2018, biennial questions on informal volunteering. The SHS is the most authoritative data source on volunteering in Scotland, with a sample size of around 10,000 adults aged 16 or over.

Volunteer Scotland analyse the SHS results on an annual basis. The level of analysis we do depends on whether the SHS dataset has the short or long question set. From 2024, in even years the survey will ask the short question set, which covers formal volunteer participation rates and types of organisations volunteered with. In odd years the long question set is asked and means we can report on formal and informal volunteer participation, frequency of volunteering, hours volunteered, types of organisations volunteered with and volunteering activity.

SHS data is usually published in the Autumn. This is the headline data with summary data tables, and Volunteer Scotland publish a blog and report on the findings. In the Summer the full dataset is released by the Scottish Government and Volunteer Scotland conducts more detailed analysis on this. Please note that the SHS data is published a year behind, so the 2023 dataset is published in 2024 etc.