It's official: 25 percent of people do 78 percent of the work

When it comes to voluntarism, 78 percent of the work is done by 25 percent of the volunteers, according to a Statistics Canada report issued this morning.

The report, titled Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating 2007, also found that 82 percent of charitable donations come from the top 25 percent of donors.

The survey found that the most generous givers tended to be older folk with higher household incomes and more education, widowed, and those who attend religious services every week.

The top 25 percent of volunteers - those who volunteered 171 hours or more - tended to be churchgoers, those with university degrees and people with school-aged children at home.

The report found a greater tendency to donate time and money among people who had participated at a younger age in organized team sports, student government, religious organizations or youth groups including Scouts and Girl Guides.

The average volunteer contributed 166 hours and the average donor gave $437, compared to $400 three years earlier.

The total time volunteered nationwide was 2.1 billion hours, equivalent to almost 1.1 million full-time jobs.

Eighty-four percent of Canadians (almost 23 million) donated money to a charitable or non-profit organization, while 46 percent volunteered time.

Religious organizations were by far the biggest beneficiaries of financial donations, getting in excess of three times the donations given to health organizations, the second most popular charitable category.

Religious organziations received 46 percent of total donations.

Thirty-six percent of donors gave to religious organizations.

Statistics Canada reports that Saskatchewan has the highest rate of voluntarism (59 percent), followed by the Yukon (58 percent), Prince Edward Island (56 percent) and Nova Scotia (55 percent).

The highest rates of giving were in Atlantic Canada, whereas Western Canada tended to have the largest donations.