Around 33 per cent of the resident population in Switzerland aged over 15 did formal or informal voluntary work in 2010, according to the Federal Statistics Office.

On average people spent around half a day a week carrying out work for organisations or providing informal help to relatives and friends.

One in five people, or around 1.3 million people, performed an unpaid activity within an organisation or institution. Men were more actively involved in formal voluntary work than women (23 per cent compared with 16.9 per cent). Top of the list was sports activities, according to a report published on Thursday.

In addition to formal volunteering, there are also informal, unpaid activities for other households such as helping neighbours, relatives and friends and looking after children. In this sector, 18.4 per cent of the population – or around 1.2 million people - helped out. Women were more active than men at 22.7 per cent compared with 13.9 per cent.

On a regional scale, there were proportionally more volunteers in German-speaking Switzerland than in the French- and Italian-speaking parts.

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