German Survey on Volunteering

The trend dataset of the German Survey on Volunteering (FWS) 1999–2014 contains identically or similarly surveyed information from the four cross-sectional surveys 1999 to 2014. It can be used for time-series analyses of volunteer work in Germany.

The trend dataset includes that information from the surveys 1999 to 2014 that have been surveyed identically or very similarly in at least three of the four survey years or in 2014 and at least one additional survey year. Each question was examined with regard to whether the question wording, the number and wording of items, the number and wording of response options and the filter routing remained constant.

The trend dataset contains information on the following topics:

• Memberships and activities in general
• Volunteering
• Most time consuming/intensive activity
• Context of volunteering
• Donations
• Background information about the person

The User Manual of the SUF FWS Trend 1999–2014 (currently available in German only, English version available soon) and the list of variable correspondence document all variables included in the trend dataset.

Further information on the data set can be found in thedocumentation and on the pages of the research project German Survey on Volunteering.

For reasons of data protection, the factually anonymised data sets can only be provided after signing a data distribution contract. FWS data is available free of charge to scientific researchers for non-profitable purposes only and requires written permission of the data distributor (FDZ-DZA). The form to apply for the use of FWS-data can be found here: application form.