Trends in Civil Society: The German Survey on Volunteering 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 (Deutscher Freiwilligensurvey – FWS)

Abstract

The German Survey on Volunteering (FWS) is a cross-sectional survey of voluntary activities of persons aged 14 and older living in Germany. It is funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ). Volunteering and the willingness to volunteer can be reported and described among population groups and across regions. Data of the wares from 1999, 2004 and 2009 as well as documentation material are available for researchers at the Research Data Centre of the DZA (FDZ-DZA, www.fdz-dza.de). The fourth wave will be carried out in 2014 under the scientific supervision of the DZA. The main report of the German Survey on Volunteering 2014 and the scientific use file will presumably be available in 2016.

Retirement and Volunteering in Germany – Historical Changes and Social Inequalities

“…To prevent potential differences in representativeness from distorting the results of our analyses, we used population weights available in the scientific use files, which were constructed based on a comparison of the study participants of each wave with respective official statistics of the German population (German Mikrozensus) on federal state, community size class, gender and age group (15-29, 30-49, 50-64, 65+), as well as education (Hameister et al, 2023). This procedure improves the comparability as each sample got more representative and while a smaller degree of overrepresentation of higher educated individuals remained, the weighted samples are very representative in terms of age, gender and migration background (Hameister et al, 2023). All inferential statistics reported below are therefore based on weighted data.…”

Beyond literacy and language provision: Socio-political participation of migrants and large language minorities in five countries from PIAAC R1/R2

“…Major surveys regularly highlight the number of adults who volunteer, that migrants are underrepresented (Schmiade, Vogel, Lux, & Simonson, 2014), and that literacy is very important (Grotlüschen, 2017). However, researchers also claim that habit and self-selectivity affect volunteering (Kleemann-Göhring & Epstein, 2016).…”