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From http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2006/12/08/nonprofit-activity.html

Non-profit sector accounts for billions in economy: study
Friday, December 8, 2006 - CBC News

Non-profit organizations in Canada generate billions in economic activity every year, a study by Statistics Canada concluded on Friday.

"Non-profit organizations not only play an important role in the well-being of Canadians, they also constitute an economic force," the agency said.

In an account of non-profit institutions and volunteering, Statistics Canada found that in 2003 the gross domestic product of the non-profit sector amounted to 7.1 per cent of the total economy or $80.3 billion.

The study, which looked at data collected over a seven-year period, found that economic activity by the non-profit sector as measured by GDP outstripped the pace of the overall economy from 1997 to 2003.

It said that GDP for the non-profit sector grew at an average rate of 6.4 per cent every year over the seven years, faster than the average rate of 5.6 per cent for the total economy during that time period.

In 2003 alone, GDP for the overall non-profit sector grew 6.3 per cent, a rate of growth greater than that for the total economy, which rose 5.6 per cent in 2003.

Statistics Canada divided the sector into two groups to analyze the data. The first group includes hospitals, universities and colleges, while the second group, described as the core of the sector, consists of mostly smaller organizations.

The agency said revenue for the core non-profit sector came from a variety of sources, including sales of goods and services, government transfers, membership fees and individual donations.

For hospitals, universities and colleges, however, the main source of revenue was government transfers and sales of goods and services.

"Hospitals, universities and colleges accounted for nearly two-thirds of economic activity in the overall non-profit sector between 1997 and 2003. The generally smaller organizations in the core sector accounted for the remaining third," it said.

Economic activity in the second group or core non-profit sector increased 7.6 per cent between 1997 and 2003, a rate faster than the 5.8 per cent growth for hospitals, universities and colleges. The core's share of the GDP in the sector overall rose 34 per cent in 1997 to 36 per cent in 2003.

The GDP of the core non-profit sector reached $29.1 billion in 2003, representing 2.6 per cent of the total economy. The entire non-profit share rose to 7.1 per cent when the GDP of hospitals, universities and colleges was included in the total.

Non-profits are big business
Statistics Canada reported that the overall non-profit sector generated economic activity greater than that of the mining, oil and gas extraction, and retail industries.

Even the smaller core sector was about twice the size of the agricultural industry and larger than the accommodation and food services industry in Canada.

The analysis also looked at volunteering, concluding that the value of volunteer work was more important than individual donations to the non-profit sector over the seven-year period and that volunteering mainly occurred in the three main fields of culture and recreation, social services and religion.

Of the three main fields, culture and recreation relied more heavily on volunteers than on paid workers, the analysis found.

Related External Links

StatsCan: Account of non-profits and volunteering - http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/061208/d061208a.htm