The amount of time spent on pro bono legal work by firms in the Asia-Pacific region has risen 40 percent in 2015 compared to a year previously, according to the TrustLaw Index of Pro Bono.

The index which has been compiled on the basis of the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s annual pro bono legal survey, shows China’s pro bono hours growing more than 211 percent, with lawyers clocking 37 hours of pro bono work on average annually since 2014.

Among general trends, the index reported2.5 million pro bono hours globally, with China and South Africa reporting higher average pro bono hours per lawyer than anywhere else, with the exception of the U.S.

The data shows that pro bono is thriving in non-traditional markets and that small law firms are averaging 41.7 hours per lawyer each year compared to 35.1 hours annually at larger firms.

The key focus area selected by 41.4 percent of firms for pro bono work, according to the index, wasimmigration, refugees and asylum, reflecting the legal sector’s concern with the current global refugee crisis.

In law firms like Thailand’s Anglo-Thai Legal, Hong Kong’s C.Y. Lam & Co., and India’s LawQuest, as well as the Hong Kong and Kazakhstan offices of Dechert and the South Korean office of Paul Hastings, 100 percent of fee earners put in more than 10 hours of pro bono work annually.

The data has been compiled by surveying more than 130 law firms, representing 64,500 lawyers in 75 countries.