China's Voluntary Service Reached a New High with 231 Million Volunteers

On January 17, 2022, the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Social Sciences Academic Press jointly released the Blue Book of Philanthropy: Annual Report on China’s Philanthropy Development (2021).

By the end of 2020, there were 894,400 social organizations throughout China, up 3.21 percent from 2019, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The Blue Book indicates that in face of the outbreak of COVID-19 disease, the development of China's voluntary service has reached a new milestone in 2020 with a total of 231 million volunteers, 86.49 million active volunteers of whom provided 3.719 billion hours of voluntary service through 790,000 voluntary service organizations, contributing RMB162 billion worth of labor costs. Epidemic prevention & control and emergency rescue have become a highlight, and the moves to institutionalize, standardize and professionalize voluntary service have accelerated. Now major challenges are still the lack of basic guarantee and recognition for voluntary service organizations and volunteers.