The German Survey on Volunteering - Der Deutsche Freiwilligensurvey 2009, 2004 and 1999: User manual of the Scientific Use Files versions 3.2; SUF FWS 2009, SUF FWS 2004, 3.2 and SUF FWS 1999, 3.2

The German Survey on Volunteering (Deutscher Freiwilligensurvey - FWS) is a representative survey on volunteering of persons aged 14 and older in Germany. Voluntary activities and the willingness to volunteer have been surveyed in telephone interviews and can be reported among population groups and across regions. Volunteering persons and persons who do not or not volunteer anymore can be described. The survey is thus a basic instrument for social reporting on volunteering and is funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citi-zens, Women and Youth (Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend - BMFSFJ). Data of the Survey on Volunteering have been recorded in 1999, 2004 2009 and 20141. For every wave a separate random sample was drawn, the data sets are thus cross-sectional. Until 2011, the survey was managed and conducted by TNS Infratest Sozialforschung (1999 Infratest Burke). Since the end of 2011, the scientific supervision lies with the German Centre of Gerontology (Deutsches Zentrum für Altersfragen - DZA). Interviews of the fourth wave were conducted by infas (Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft) in 2014. Data sets of the waves 1999, 2004 and 2009 have been edited by the DZA as Scientific Use Files and are available at the Research Data Centre of the DZA (Forschungsdatenzentrum - FDZ-DZA). The SUFs FWS 2009, FWS 2004 and FWS 1999 are each published as version 3.2 in the FDZ-DZA2 to avoid confusion with earlier versions. This user manual gives an overview of these three data sets