The 2012 Pilot Survey on Volunteer Work forms part of the second edition of the INE Satellite Account on the social economy, which was released to mark International Human Solidarity Day.

According to the survey, about 11.5% of the resident population aged 15 or over had taken part in at least one formal or informal activity involving volunteer work - that is, about 1,040,000 people.

Based on a European Union statistics office survey covering 2011, the INE notes that rates of volunteering are markedly higher in northern Europe, with the Netherlands leading the way with 57% of people aged 15 and over saying that they do volunteer work.

By contrast, countries of Eastern Europe are those with most of the lowest rates of volunteering.

"Portugal was ranked third last, relatively distant from the EU average (24%)," with only Bulgaria and Poland having lower rates of participation in volunteering activities, the INE report states.

"This relative position of the country may be explained in part by the culture of participation in voluntary work activities and by the socio-economic conditions of the country, with some correlation between the degree of economic development and the volunteer rate of the countries," it added.

In 2012, "368.2 million hours are believed to have been devoted to volunteer work" in Portugal, implying that the number of hours in these activities represents 4.3% of all hours worked in the country, the report states. "This means that, on average, the total resident population aged 15 or over spent approximately 29 hours per month on voluntary work."

According to INE calculations, based on the national minimum salary, voluntary work generated turnover of €1.014 billion, corresponding to 0.60% of gross domestic product in 2012.