More than 6% of Spain's residents do regular volunteer work

OVER 2.7 million residents in Spain carry out volunteer work of some description, with three in 10 of them aged from 14 to 35 inclusive – in total, 6.4% of teenagers and adults in the country give up some of their time regularly for unpaid charitable, social and humanitarian efforts.

Expatriate pensioners who moved to Spain to spend their retirement in the sun have long been regular volunteers, involved in everything from working in charity shops to helping at animal shelters, and organising fund-raisers for children's shelters, the homeless, the disabled, for cancer research and care, and numerous other causes.

Long-standing charities, mostly based on Spain's coasts, include HELP, which assists people in hospital, provides home care and loan of equipment; MABS and Cancer Care Jávea, which provide support and care for people with cancer and their loved ones; U3A fund-raising groups and independent charity shops which often sponsor a particular local cause, or several, each year, or long term – some of the latter amass up to €40,000 or €50,000 a year for poverty relief, children's homes and homeless shelters in their towns – and a high number of expat-run animal sanctuaries on the Costas and their wider provinces have their own charity shop and run events ranging from fêtes to fashion shows throughout the year to fund pet food and veterinary care.

Anyone moving to Spain after giving up the rat-race and hoping to spend some of their retirement helping people and animals in the community will have plenty of opportunity to do so, and will probably find quite an international mix among their 'colleagues'.

But among the Spanish-dwelling population as a whole, foreign-born and locally-born, the typical profile of a volunteer tends to be a younger female who is financially-comfortable, according to research by the Plataforma del Voluntariado de España ('Spain Volunteer Association', or PVE).

Its La Acción Voluntaria 2021 ('Volunteer Action 2021') report says the most likely type of person who gives up their time would be a woman aged between 25 and 44, with a mid-to-high income.

The three in 10 aged 14 to 35 total around 850,000, or 8.3% of their age group, whilst around 6.1% of those aged 36 to 64 do so.

Pensioners from abroad are part of the 4.1% of the community aged 65 and over who do volunteer work, which can be anything from an hour or half an hour a week through to practically a full-time job.

The number of 65-plus volunteers has dropped by about two percentage points in the last couple of years, due to the pandemic, as those of State pension age face a greater health risk if they contract Covid and many opted to 'shield' by reducing or eliminating contact with others outside the home.

Volunteers are slightly more likely to be female – 54% of the total – and the typical profile of a woman aged 25 to 44 accounts for 25% of the 2.7 million helpers on record.

Just before the pandemic, the average age was higher, typically between 45 and 54.

The vast majority have a university-level education or, at least, post-sixth form, or the equivalent – 78% of Spain's volunteers – and 93% are middle-high income earners.

Six in 10 are involved in social causes, although the number volunteering in environmental-related work has risen since early 2020 from 4% to 6%, and those working with or supporting animals in need have increased in that time from 2.5% to 6%.

Two of the main organisations that spring to mind when thinking of volunteer work are the Red Cross, and the Catholic Church-run poverty relief charity Cáritas – both of which have branches in almost every town and which are normally behind the local food banks.

The Red Cross in Spain has over a quarter of a million volunteers, and Cáritas has upwards of 80,000 – in the case of the latter, helpers do not have to be members of the Catholic Church and can even be atheists, since the charity exists to support those in need nationwide, irrespective of culture, nationality, faith, or absence thereof.

Another, similar organisation operating across Spain with local branches, running food banks, supplying food parcels and other general support for those in poverty, is Manos Unidas ('Hands United'), which currently has 6,344 volunteers, but has said it 'always needs more'.

Emergency response organisations staffed entirely by unpaid helpers include the Civil Protection squad, which is often first on the scene in the event of accidents, natural disasters, mountain rescues and other incidents needing urgent assistance, and which are present in almost every town.

Other more local versions include the Bomberos Voluntarios del Balcón al Mar ('Balcón al Mar Volunteer Fire Brigade') in Jávea, northern Alicante province, which started out in the urbanisation of the same name and is usually the main resource in the event of forest fires, as the nearest 'mainstream' brigade is around 10 to 15 kilometres away.

Today (Sunday, December 5) is International Volunteer Day, and the PVE has been staging various campaigns to reflect it, including art competitions in schools to drum up younger support.