Have you ever wanted a few facts and figures about the sector at your fingertips?  Have you wished you could give a journalist a few nuggets of info to show how important the sector is to society? 

Our new freebie is a 4 pager packed with info and data to show how important the charity sector really is. Its covers the number of charities, the number of employees, the levels of donations and volunteering, how charities are regulated and the contribution of charities to areas such as cancer research and housing. We also look at the importance of charities geographically.

Ten of our key facts are below and if you would like the whole report download the attachment.

10 key facts

• There are 760,000 paid employees in the charity sector
• There are 160,000 charities in the UK, nearly 90% of which have an income below £500k per year
• The combined income of charities is about £39 billion a year. This is larger than either automotive industry or UK universities and about the same as Tesco.
• Charities add more value (GVA) to the UK economy than either the arts or agriculture sectors
• 21 million people have volunteered at some stage and 14 million volunteer once a month or more
• 44 million donate to charity on a regular basis, giving an average of £16 a month
• The median salary for the 100 highest paid charity positions is £165k per annum
• Charities have over 10 regulators
• Charities fund 60% of cancer research in the UK and over 40% of all medical research