Basic Statistics On

Basic Statistics on the Third Sector in Wales

March 2013

Organisations

There are approximately 33,000 voluntary and community organisations in Wales, of which 32,197 are recorded on the All Wales Database, maintained by WCVA.

Of the groups on the database, 1540 groups are national, 1,196 groups work in more than one local authority area and 27,984 are local.

23% are sports and recreation bodies

18% are involved in community development or are community buildings

13% are benevolent organisations

13% are faith groups with wider public benefit

11% are involved in health and social care

11% are involved with children and families

9% are involved in the arts, culture or heritage

9% are interested in youth

6% are interested in the natural or built environment

5% are involved in gender issues or are gender specific

5% are involved with people with physical, sensory or learning disability

Other groups include advice and advocacy groups, animal welfare groups, education and training, employment, ethnic minorities, housing, international aid and emergency relief, and volunteer and voluntary sector support.

There are 7,759 registered charities operating in Wales (Charity Commission Feb 2012). Over 7,221 Third Sector organisations are registered with Companies House. There are 337 cooperatives based in Wales. Overall, it is estimated that about 12,430 third sector organisations are registered with a regulator of some kind (WCVA All Wales Database) .

Volunteers

Volunteering can be done for people you know directly, or through an organisation.

Looking at volunteering through organisations, three methods give different results. The 2009-10 pilot for the National Survey for Wales provides an estimate of 20 per cent of households, which is translated to mean 590,026 people. The equivalent statistic from WCVA survey of organisationsgives an estimate of 408,000. The Citizenship survey gives an estimate of volunteering through an organisation of 33 per cent of adults in 2010-11, which equates to 978,460. The different methods used account for some of the difference. Here we use the Citizenship survey, as this enables comparison with statistics for England.

Third sector income

These figures indicate that 191 million hours of voluntary effort is given in a year, which is worth £2.2 billion. This is equivalent to nearly 5 per cent of Wales GDP. When added to the estimated £1.6 billion of Third Sector income, this gives £3.8 billion, roughly equivalent to 8 per cent of Wales GDP.

Third sector contribution to the GDP of Wales

GDP can be estimated by the wages paid to workers. Thus the contribution of the voluntary sector is the sum of the value of volunteer time and the staff costs of voluntary organisations.

Third sector employment

The third sector employs at least 34,030 people, based on the Labour Force Survey 2011. WCVA surveys of organisation indicate that there are 51,000 posts. The Labour Force Survey only records the main employment of a person, so many underestimate the total number of people employed in the Third Sector. Here we use the estimate of 50,960 posts, which has increased from the estimated 46,400 in 2005.

This represents 2.5 per cent of the number of people employed in Wales.

For further enquiries, contact

Bryan Collis, Research Officer Email: Tel: (01492) 539 800

Notes:

Adult pop of Wales 3.1m (2011 Census). Average wage £11.51 per hour (ASHE 2010).

© WCVA

March 2013

This information sheet can be made available in large print,

or on disk. Also available in Welsh. If you require further information please contact the helpdesk on 0870 607 1666, e-mail: or our website

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