Is Transition to Retirement Associated With Volunteering? Longitudinal Evidence from Europe

Abstract

Studies have shown that retired older adults are more likely to volunteer than their working counterparts. However, whether the transition to retirement is associated with increased volunteering frequency and whether this varies according to material and time resources of participants is unclear. We used four waves of data from the longitudinal Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, collected between 2011–2018 across 19 countries ( n = 12,400 person-observations from 6200 individuals over 50). Within-person (or panel fixed-effect) regression analyses revealed that transition to retirement was associated with an increased volunteering frequency over time. This association was stronger among individuals with better health, higher education, improved financial situation and in countries with higher gross domestic product per capita. Overall, transition to retirement tends to open new ways of organizing everyday life and is associated with increased frequency of volunteering.