Volunteering in later life

In this chapter, Martijn Hogerbrugge uses data from the National Survey of Volunteering and Charitable Giving to reveal the complexity of patterns of volunteering undertaken by older people in England.  His detailed analysis shows that that older volunteers are far from a homogenous group. He shows how some characteristics, like marital status, education, and religious background, have a bearing not only on whether or not someone volunteers, but on the number of times and hours spent volunteering. The data also reveal the barriers that limit volunteering in later life.