Volunteering has a particular significance in adult education in Germany. The total number of volunteers among the educators lies at around a tenth of the workforce.

According to the 2004 study from the consulting firm "Wirtschafts- und Sozialforschung (WSF - Economic and Social Research), there are approximately 1.35 million active educators in continuing education. It can be assumed that there are around 650,000 educators due to multiple employment. Out of the 1.35 million employed in continuing education, 130,000 (10%) are volunteers. There are 185,000 (14%) educators paying social insurance contributions. 996,000 (74%) are freelancers/self-employed. In addition, 39,000 (3%) were employed under other activities, which includes officials and temporary workers.

Particularly in the areas of church- and union-based adult education as well as in rural adult education and in sports, voluntary teaching is very important.

In terms of the individual adult education segments, the high proportion of volunteers in church-based adult education in Germany is particularly clear. 2009's figures from continuing education statistics provided by the German Institute for Adult Education (DIE) relating to staff employed in church institutions verify that in Catholic adult education, there are 5995 volunteers (30.8% of the staff). In Protestant adult education, there are 9371 volunteers – 24.1% of all employees.