2018 General Social Survey (Cycle 33): Giving, Volunteering and Participating Public Use Microdata File Documentation and User Guide

This package was designed to help users access and manipulate the public use microdata file (PUMF) for the 2018 General Social Survey (GSS) on Giving, Volunteering and Participating (GVP). It contains the PUMF data and describes the objectives, methodology and estimation procedures for this survey as well as guidelines for releasing estimates. Statistics Canada collected data on the topic of giving, volunteering and participating for the seventh time in 2018. Data were previously collected by the National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (NSGVP) in 1997 and 2000, and by the Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (CSGVP) 2004, 2007 and 2010. Then the survey became part of Statistics Canada's GSS program with its 2013 iteration. The 2018 GSS GVP collected data from persons aged 15 years and over living in private households in Canada, excluding residents of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut and full time residents of institutions. Between 2004 and 2018, core content of the survey was revised in a number of ways, based on experience gained from earlier iterations. Some questions were revised to improve their clarity for respondents, and others were added or dropped following consultations with stakeholders from the charitable and non-profit sector, government and academic communities. In 2018, updates were also made in light of developments in international standards concerning the definition of volunteering. Moreover, there were updates made throughout the questionnaire due to the transition to online reporting.