Denmark's digital volunteers

Denmark's digital volunteers' maps Denmark's impressive digital civil society on Facebook, consisting of at least 9,000 groups on Facebook with more than 50 million members. This is where the Danish people come together in large numbers to discuss everything from crocheting and hobbies to carpooling, the municipality's local plan, climate-friendly dinners and chronic pain.

All of us who love mushroom hunting', 'It's happening in Horsens', 'We help each other - because we want to', 'Breastfeeding network for children 0-2 years', 'Confirmation for the vulnerable (FREE)', 'We with asthma, eczema and allergies'. These are just a few examples of some of the thousands of digital community centres that are alive and well in Denmark today and have become a great engine for the exchange of knowledge, support, advice, comfort, complaints, recognition, opinions, things, food, good ideas and much more.

The digital communities are run by tens of thousands of volunteer administrators and moderators who put a lot of effort into the voluntary work of managing and running the digital community centres. The average digital volunteer administrator or moderator works more hours than a traditional volunteer. Four out of five digital volunteers are active in their digital community centre every day, and more than one in ten check in at least once an hour. Volunteering as an administrator or moderator is both time consuming and demanding. 76% of administrators and moderators have been digital volunteers for three years or more.

People of all ages and educational backgrounds are digital volunteers, but the results suggest that the digital format has the potential to engage new groups of volunteers, especially more people on welfare, more people without education, and more people with physical and mental challenges that make it difficult to volunteer in the traditional sense.

The study also shows that digital community centres make a big and positive difference for their members and for the digital public debate. 70% of adult Danes are members of a Facebook group and more than one in two are active on a weekly basis. In digital civil society, you can find inspiration for your hobby, meet new opinions, get help in resolving family conflicts, establish breastfeeding or put food on the table at the end of the month if you are financially vulnerable. At the same time, it seems to make a difference that it's citizens who are taking the reins of the digital debate: there is significantly less hate and fewer verbal attacks in citizens' Facebook groups than on the Facebook pages of politicians and the media.

The study provides a deep and broad insight into the brightest light in the technological darkness, showing digital citizenship in full bloom. Denmark has a strong tradition of volunteering; tens of thousands of citizens volunteer on digital platforms, and people fundamentally want to help each other in the vibrant digital civil society.

TrygFonden and Analyse & Tal are behind the survey, which is a follow-up and extension of the report on Denmark's Digital Civic Centres from 2022.