The Nonprofit World: Its Size and Scope

May 15, 2008 | Read Time: 3 minutes

Nonprofit groups are growing faster than the rest of the economy, according to figures released this month by the Urban Institute in Washington.

While the U.S. gross domestic product increased by approximately 35 percent from 1995 to 2005, after adjusting for inflation, the revenue of nonprofit groups rose by nearly 55 percent and their total assets grew by 77 percent. Nonprofit groups account for 5 percent of the gross domestic product, according to data reported in the Nonprofit Almanac, a compilation of figures about a range of trends in the nonprofit world, including the number of charities that work on specific causes, as well as information about their revenue and spending. The study also found that nonprofit groups:

Grew in number by more than 27 percent from 1995 to 2005.
Contributed more than $666-billion to the economy through their activities.
Received $1-trillion in revenue in 2006, a 5-percent increase from 2005.
Employed 12.9 million people. Nonprofit groups pay 8.1 percent of the nation’s wages, and employ 9.7 percent of its workers.

The Nonprofit Almanac 2008 is available from the Urban Institute Press for $39.50. To order, go to http://www.urban.org/uipress.

GROWTH OF NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS, 1995-2005

	1995	2000	2005	Percentage change 1995-2005	Percentage change 1995-2005 (adjusted for inflation)
All nonprofit organizations	1.1 million	1.3 million	1.4 million	27.3%	—
Reporting nonprofit organizations	431,567	428,154	530,376	22.9	—
Revenues	$802-billion	$1.1-trillion	$1.6-trillion	96.9	54.6%
Expenses	$729-billion	$984-billion	$1.4-trillion	96.4	54.2
Assets	$1.5-trillion	$2.4-trillion	$3.4-trillion	125.6	77.1
Charitable nonprofit organizations	572,660	690,326	876,164	53.0	—
Reporting charitable nonprofit organizations*	187,038	245,749	310,683	66.1	—
Revenues	$573-billion	$811-billion	$1.1-trillion	99.5	56.6
Expenses	$530-billion	$731-billion	$1.1-trillion	98.7	56.0
Assets	$843-billion	$1.4-trillion	$2.0-trillion	134.3	83.9
* Includes only nonprofit organizations that have $25,000 or more in annual expenses. Those groups are required to file informational tax returns annually with the Internal Revenue Service.

SOURCES OF REVENUE FOR CHARITIES

Fee for services and goods	70.3%
Private contributions	12.3%
Government grants	9.0%
Investment income	5.4%
Other income	2.9%
Note: Based on charities with $25,000 or more in expenses.

NUMBER OF CHARITIES BY CAUSE AND BY FINANCIAL SCOPE, 2005

			By dollar amount (in millions)			By share
	Total number	Percent	Revenue	Expenses	Assets	Revenue	Expenses	Assets
Arts, culture, humanities	35,840	11.5%	$27,355	$23,927	$81,885	2.4%	2.3%	4.1%
Education	57,991	18.7	188,178	158,679	571,643	16.4	15.1	28.9
Higher education	2,112	0.7	130,722	110,004	421,542	11.4	10.4	21.3
Other	55,879	18.0	57,456	48,675	150,101	5.0	4.6	7.6
Environment, animals	13,399	4.3	11,658	9,807	31,607	1.0	0.9	1.6
Health care	41,243	13.3	672,131	637,323	826,158	58.8	60.5	41.8
Hospitals and primary-care facilities	5,045	1.6	492,498	468,000	608,836	43.0	44.4	30.8
Other	36,198	11.7	179,633	169,323	217,323	15.7	16.1	11.0
Human services	100,436	32.3	148,099	141,215	223,041	12.9	13.4	11.3
International and foreign affairs	5,075	1.6	22,827	20,535	18,341	2.0	1.9	0.9
Public and societal benefit	37,677	12.1	63,362	53,052	200,315	5.5	5.0	10.1
Religion	18,600	6.0	10,304	8,867	22,650	0.9	0.8	1.1
Other	422	0.1	109	83	152	0.0	0.0	0.0
All public charities	310,683	100.0%	$1,144,022	$1,053,487	$1,975,792	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Note: Includes only nonprofit organizations that have $25,000 or more in annual expenses. Those groups are required to file informational tax returns annually with the Internal Revenue Service.

STATE-BY-STATE FINANCES OF NONPROFIT GROUPS, 2005

	Revenue	Expenses	Assets
Northeast	$325,570,546,176	$298,464,105,916	$618,795,769,862
New England	110,536,963,581	95,741,677,329	269,270,920,434
Connecticut	23,314,541,249	19,504,307,892	62,631,186,813
Maine	7,533,343,566	6,931,855,691	10,070,472,424
Massachusetts	63,526,552,164	54,408,681,546	167,393,641,830
New Hampshire	6,766,449,895	6,111,679,600	14,762,173,349
Rhode Island	6,582,023,387	6,104,726,149	9,592,714,568
Vermont	2,814,053,320	2,680,426,451	4,820,731,450
Middle Atlantic	215,033,582,595	202,722,428,587	349,524,849,428
New Jersey	31,692,135,550	29,866,604,146	53,772,708,944
New York	115,100,594,612	109,135,523,728	176,579,669,157
Pennsylvania	68,240,852,433	63,720,300,713	119,172,471,327
Midwest	268,936,792,131	250,689,775,121	470,957,905,369
East North Central	187,307,690,203	174,732,954,171	321,192,411,276
Illinois	53,280,601,550	49,213,899,328	100,264,910,259
Indiana	23,254,293,139	21,601,964,838	42,170,016,935
Michigan	34,782,541,134	32,812,150,179	52,878,868,228
Ohio	52,079,730,175	48,983,199,607	89,661,603,330
Wisconsin	23,910,524,205	22,121,740,219	36,217,012,524
West North Central	81,629,101,928	75,956,820,950	149,765,494,093
Iowa	9,215,277,377	8,628,909,944	19,798,928,864
Kansas	7,349,919,588	6,780,239,508	10,597,642,081
Minnesota	25,893,921,300	24,177,696,180	45,622,240,585
Missouri	25,434,759,331	23,529,856,647	52,285,272,883
Nebraska	7,064,916,831	6,538,291,154	12,232,687,812
North Dakota	2,763,760,599	2,655,457,738	3,340,919,114
South Dakota	3,906,546,902	3,646,369,779	5,887,802,754
South	316,040,143,321	289,196,500,705	557,503,287,727
South Atlantic	194,698,367,744	176,349,787,915	350,004,080,415
Delaware	2,599,742,428	2,423,471,869	12,121,071,225
District of Columbia	21,884,786,898	19,459,437,802	32,937,786,067
Florida	46,166,439,303	42,726,139,360	71,054,110,715
Georgia	27,833,638,846	24,910,085,304	48,237,244,061
Maryland	$25,613,998,647	$22,606,591,456	$51,652,389,822
North Carolina	28,102,873,561	25,524,683,253	52,589,370,558
South Carolina	8,093,061,141	7,476,297,486	17,129,800,070
Virginia	29,009,021,286	26,057,940,936	57,496,202,999
West Virginia	5,394,805,634	5,165,140,449	6,786,104,898
East South Central	44,529,108,153	41,695,554,629	76,702,140,561
Alabama	7,747,277,321	7,115,833,680	12,826,686,431
Kentucky	13,076,712,370	12,378,261,709	19,425,769,399
Mississippi	5,008,314,526	4,713,543,040	7,810,728,955
Tennessee	18,696,803,936	17,487,916,200	36,638,955,776
West South Central	76,812,667,424	71,151,158,161	130,797,066,751
Arkansas	9,364,908,491	9,036,429,015	7,708,327,698
Louisiana	9,413,070,975	8,953,088,904	14,427,981,307
Oklahoma	7,746,649,072	6,844,261,249	14,897,163,038
Texas	50,288,038,886	46,317,378,993	93,763,594,708
West	231,629,214,529	213,382,939,800	324,853,832,250
Mountain	43,694,253,793	39,785,181,296	64,290,901,775
Arizona	14,668,295,355	13,411,011,156	16,846,418,516
Colorado	12,613,215,849	11,501,187,379	21,139,765,507
Idaho	1,919,579,074	1,766,358,676	2,806,780,810
Montana	3,244,427,169	3,024,814,129	5,429,128,869
Nevada	2,558,796,581	2,092,921,841	4,438,582,173
New Mexico	3,638,756,849	3,371,066,295	5,706,842,946
Utah	4,219,394,313	3,877,024,433	6,187,338,576
Wyoming	831,788,603	740,797,387	1,736,044,378
Pacific	187,934,960,736	173,597,758,504	260,562,930,475
Alaska	2,174,205,697	2,066,171,153	2,825,442,150
California	141,415,481,968	130,399,746,528	197,119,055,785
Hawaii	4,988,363,311	4,278,993,030	12,693,546,817
Oregon	14,986,314,801	14,210,369,295	15,428,076,481
Washington	24,370,594,959	22,642,478,498	32,496,809,242
U.S. Territories	1,845,508,554	1,754,026,817	3,680,994,859
United States	1,144,022,204,711	1,053,487,348,359	1,975,791,790,067

DISTRIBUTION OF CHARITIES BY TOTAL REVENUE AND ASSETS

Expenses

Public charities

$10-million or more	82.7%
	3.7%
$5-million to $9,999,999	5.5%
	2.6%
$1,000,000 to $4,999,999	7.5%
	11.4%
$500,000 to $999,999	1.8%
	8.5%
$100,000 to $499,999	2%
	29.2%
Less than $100,000	0.6%
	44.6%

KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICA’S VOLUNTEERS

	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Total	27.4%	28.8%	28.8%	28.8%	26.7%
Gender
Men	23.6	25.1	25.0	25.0	23.0
Women	31.0	32.2	32.4	32.4	30.1
Race and ethnicity
White	29.2	30.6	30.5	30.4	28.3
Black or African-American	19.1	20.0	20.8	22.1	19.2
Asian	n/a	18.7	19.3	20.7	18.5
Hispanic or Latino	15.5	15.7	14.5	15.4	13.9
Age
16 to 24	21.9	24.1	24.2	24.4	21.7
25 to 34	24.8	26.5	25.8	25.3	23.1
35 to 44	34.1	34.7	34.2	34.5	31.2
45 to 54	31.3	32.7	32.8	32.7	31.2
55 to 64	27.5	29.2	30.1	30.2	27.9
65 and older	22.7	23.7	24.6	24.8	23.8
Education
Less than a high-school diploma	10.1	9.9	9.6	10.0	9.3
High school graduate, no college	21.2	21.7	21.6	21.2	19.2
Less than a bachelor’s degree	32.8	34.1	34.2	33.7	30.9
College graduate	43.3	45.6	45.7	45.8	43.3
Employment
Civilian labor force	29.3	30.9	30.9	31.1	28.5
Employed	29.5	31.2	31.2	31.3	28.7
Full-time	28.3	29.6	29.6	29.8	27.3
Part-time	35.4	38.4	38.5	38.2	35.5
Unemployed	25.1	26.7	25.6	26.4	23.8
Not in the labor force	23.7	24.6	24.7	24.4	23.1
Marital status
Single, never married	21.2	22.8	23.2	23.0	20.3
Married, spouse present	32.7	34.0	33.9	34.1	32.2
Other marital status	22.1	22.5	22.9	23.1	21.3