Cultural volunteering: in Italy it is 57% of the total, and for every nonprofit worker there are 67 volunteers

In Italy, 56.6 percent of volunteers serve in the cultural sphere, and for every employee of nonprofit associations there are as many as 67 volunteers. These are the monstrous figures presented by Istat’s 2018 Annual Report, which was presented yesterday at the Chamber of Deputies: the volume states that “the contribution of volunteers is conspicuous in the area of culture, sports and recreation, in which 57.0 percent of volunteering is concentrated.” At the same time, the area that Istat calls “culture, sports and recreation,” identified as that which “concerns artistic and cultural activities, sports and socialization,” represents “the predominant sector of activity (almost 220 thousand institutions, 65 percent of the national total).”

In fact, scrolling through the census of nonprofit institutions, it is observed that out of the total 5,528,760 volunteers who served in Italy in 2015, as many as 3,128,701 belong to the culture, sports and recreation sector. This is 56.6 percent out of the total number of volunteers in nonprofit institutions: employees of cultural, sports and recreation associations (46,803 in all), on the other hand, account for only 5.9 percent of the total (which is 788,126).

These data, which appear worrisome in that they certify how in culture there is too extensive use of volunteer work, place the field of culture outside all averages. In fact, if at the national level for every employee in nonprofit institutions there are 7 volunteers, the number, as mentioned, rises to 67 volunteers for 1 employee in the area of culture. To make a comparison with other realities, in health care there are about 4 volunteers for every employee, ineducation the ratio is almost on par (124,879 employees versus 161,028 volunteers), in economic development the number of employees is double the number of volunteers, in religious associations there is one employee for every 25 volunteers, in labor associations there are 4 volunteers for every employee, and again, in civil defense there are 3 volunteers per employee. Worse than culture fares only the environment sector, with 90 volunteers per employee.

However, the environment sector, relative to the average number of employees per institution, records twice as many as the culture sector (0.4 versus 0.2: the figure for culture is the lowest ever). In this sense, the most virtuous sector is the health sector, where each institution has an average of 15 employees and 37 volunteers.

Cultural volunteering: in Italy it is 57% of the total, and for every nonprofit worker there are 67 volunteers

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