Taiwan had more than 64,000 volunteers last year, of whom 70 percent were women, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday.
Since the Volunteer Service Law (
At the end of last year, ministry officials said, there were 1,169 volunteer service corps, up 17.1 percent from a year before.
In terms of numbers, the service corps had a total of 64,822 volunteers, marking a 10.5 percent increase from the 2003 level.
On average, each volunteer worked 1.6 hours in two installments per week.
Female volunteers far outnumbered their male counterparts, 70 percent to 30 percent. In terms of education, graduates of senior high schools and vocational schools formed the bulk, accounting for 40 percent of the total.
By occupation, homemakers accounted for 30 percent of all formally registered volunteers, followed by those working in the commercial and industrial community with 24 percent and students at 16 percent.
By area, Kaohsiung County boasted the largest number of volunteers with more than 6,300, followed by Taichung City with 5,700 and Taipei City with 5,500.
However, Hualien County had the highest volunteer participation rate, with 88 volunteers out of every 10,000 residents. Nantou County came in second with 72 volunteers out of every 10,000 residents, followed by Penghu County with 61 volunteers per 10,000 residents.
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