According to a Statistics Canada study released April 17, people who attend religious services at least once a week volunteer more often and for more hours than people who attend services less often or not at all.
Attendees regularly volunteered for about 40 per cent more hours than other volunteers, according to the 2010 survey.
Twenty-one per cent of all weekly service-goers qualified as “top volunteers,” meaning they each contributed at least 161 hours (the equivalent of about 4 weeks of full-time work) in 12 months. “This was more than double the proportion of 10 per cent among people who attended less frequently, including adults who did not attend at all,” the study said.
In total, 65 per cent of Canadians who attended religious services weekly volunteered, compared with 44 per cent of those who did not attend as often or at all.
Across the country, more than 13.3 million people collectively volunteered 2.1 billion hours (the equivalent of just under 1.1 million full-time jobs) in 2010. Just 10 per cent of these volunteers contributed 53 per cent of those hours.
