Registered 501(c)( 3) charities per 100,000 households, 1999–2008

973

1,016

902

923

930

867

782

799

832

745

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

 

Tracking growth in the number of registered charities is one way to assess the size and impact of the nonprofit sector. Another is to look at trends in the ratio of nonprofit organizations to households. A common measure is the number of nonprofit organizations per 100,000 households.

The Current Population Survey, which is conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, reports an annual number of households. For 2008, it is 116. 78 million. There are 1. 186 million registered charities under section 501(c)( 3) of the Internal Revenue Code. This comes to 1,016 registered charities for every 100,000 households for 2008.

This is an increase of 36 percent in the past decade. The nonprofit sector has grown faster than the household sector. There were 745 registered charities for each 100,000 households in 1999. By 2008, that ratio climbed to 1,016 registered 501(c)( 3) charities for every 100,000 households.

This does not necessarily mean that all households are served by more charities, nor does it mean that all households receive requests for support from more charities than they did a decade ago. Nonprofit formation is not uniformly distributed in the nation, so that there are some areas with a high density of charities (New York, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. would be some examples) and some areas with low density. In addition, it is important to remember that registered charities are not all active, nor are all active charities registered.