How Many Registered Charities Are There In The UK?

The figure quoted for the number of charities in the UK is usually about 170k.  That's the number of registered charities with the Charity Commission E&W but the number of charities in the UK is far higher.  No one really knows for sure but the total figure for UK non-profits is about 0.5 million, of which charities represent about 80%.  This resource breaks down UK charity numbers to answer the question of how many charities there are in the UK.

How Many Non Profits in the UK?  Charities & Social Enterprises Numbers

Navca estimates that there are estimate that, across England, there are around 495,000 organisations in the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, including grass roots ‘under the radar’ groups.  We think this discrepancy may be (in part) due to how we define non profits.  We use constituted groups (ie have a constitution and volunteer management group), so have some degree of organisation and formality and probably carry out their work for some time.  That is obviously far fewer than the many ad hoc groups of people that come together from time-to-time doing equally valuable work to support their communities.

How Many Charities in the UK? Numbers By Type and Country

The number of unregistered charities is unknown.  The NAO Briefing July 2012 – below £5k threshold estimated these to be about 100k and more recent work (Third Sector Research Centre, Jan 2025), guessed about 900,000 but that was based on counting almost any type of organisations of any size, in a very small area.  We define an unregistered charity as a constituted non profit group that has been organised for a purpose and is governed and which may not be a charity in terms of the legal definition but which would be seen by most people to be charitable in nature.

How Many Registered Charities in Scotland?

The total number of registered charities in Scotland as at end 2023 was 25,107 but this included 1,246 Cross Border Charities, which are also registered with the Charity Commission E&W.

How Many Charities in Northern Ireland?

The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI) has estimated there are between 11,000 and 16,500 charities currently operating in Northern Ireland, ranging from churches, clubs and drop-in groups to societies and umbrella groups, so registration will be a managed process over coming years.  The total number of registered charities in Northern Ireland was 7,205 in Apr 24.

Charity Numbers In England & Wales by Income Band

How Many Registered Non Profits in the UK?  Other Non-Profits

CICs, CBC and Cooperatives are social enterprises.  I can't find a number for CBCs but they are a bit unusual, so my guess is maybe in the region of 1000 to 2000.  A Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) is not a legal structure but a tax categorisation by HMRC. In Jun 25, HMRC records listed 7,935.

Registered Charity Numbers - UK Regulators

• The Charity Commission for England and Wales publishes current data on charities on the register including by income and people numbers.  Note, most charities are not on the register.
• The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has a sortable search tool for Scottish charities.
• The Charity Commission Norther Ireland (CCNI) has a register you can search.

All 3 regulators allow data to be downloaded as a .csv file.

Charity People

Nobody really knows how many charity people there are and depending on how you define them, you can get very different numbers.  We have used the Charity Commission data, which is robust, but downgraded the pro rata total in recognition that a significant number of the non profits not counted by the Commission are micro (under £10k), so are likely to have statistically fewer people than the Commission's sample.  There is a substantial margin of error in our estimates; maybe 25%?

Methodology

• The Charity Commission E&W publishes data on charity people.   This is updated frequently but the data for Jul 25 is in the table above.
  • However, that's for the 170k charities on their register, not the estimated 400k UK charities in total.
    • Bearing in mind that 100k of these are micro, so have no staff and are likely to have fewer trustees and volunteers on average.
• The  Government Community Life Survey 2023/24 (published by DCMS) found that 28% of adults in England—about 12.9 million people—participated in formal volunteering at least once in the past year.
  • On a pro rata basis that gives a UK total of about 30 million.
  • However, how many volunteers there are depends on what you count - formal vs informal, monthly vs annual, and which organisations with volunteers you include.
  • We define volunteers as:
    • Those who might reasonably consider themselves to be part of a non profit, not those who have volunteered with one, and.
    • We do not count public service volunteers, such as the NHS and Police.
  • A figure of 14m appears to be a fairly widely accepted number.

Additional Data.  I found the data below on a Policy Bee (charity insurance company) web page.  However, I can't find a source and I think there are errors in some of the data they've quoted.  The data below 'feels about right' but I can't say it is.

• 84% of charity workers are in England, Scotland - 10%, Wales - 3%, and Northern Ireland - 2%.
• In England, 42% of the voluntary sector workforce is based in London and the South.

Other Sources of Charity Data

Navca: Unseen but Essential.

Access All The Free Charity Resources

A registered charity ourselves, the CEF works for any non profit, not just charities.

• Funding Finder - with categories for Core Cost Funding and Small Charities & Community Groups.
• Help Finder – find anything for free, including companies that make financial donations and raffle prizes.
• Data Finder – for fundraising bids & research, impact reporting, planning and campaigning.

Plus, 60+ policies, 8 online health checks and the huge resource base.

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The Statistics Used - Assumptions & Limitations

Here are the main assumptions in the model:

1. Data is drawn from a range of sources and these may have compiled figures on a differing basis to each other.
2. Some figures are not up-to-date.
3. Link charities have been excluded from the totals.
4. The percentage breakdown by income band of charities, is based on the percentages in the Charity Commission 2018 figures - this assumes that the current breakdown hasn't changed and also the exempt and excepted charity breakdowns follow the same pattern.
5. CASCs are in addition to the Social Enterprises UK total, because these were not included in the survey.  However, CASC is really a tax status, not legal structure and, it may be, that there is some double counting here.