Nowadays, friends can be ordered. Amsterdam's Friend Service offers people who are going through a difficult time the opportunity to have social contact with volunteers. Despite this, Friend Service volunteer Raphael Beaumont and service user Maurice don't really see their friendship as arranged, "We call it volunteer work, because we need a structure to get to know one another. But it's just being there for each other."

Nearly half of Dutch people work as volunteers. In 2007, 5.6 million people, aged 18 and above took part in voluntary work. That is about 44 percent of the adult Dutch population. The largest number of volunteers work for sports associations. There are about the same number of men and women volunteers, but the sexes tend to work for different sorts of organisations. Men mostly help out in sports organisations or for their church or mosque, while women mostly do volunteer work for schools or for the care sector.

The majority of volunteers are aged between 35 and 44, and there are more volunteers in the countryside than in towns. Highly educated people are more likely to do voluntary work than those with fewer qualifications.

(Source: Viability POLS-module Volunteer Deployment)