Statistics and facts about the charitable and nonprofit sector

There are over 161,000 Canadian charities and nonprofit organizations (National Survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations, Hall et al., 2004).
Charities make up roughly 82,000 of that number (find out more in the Satellite Account of Nonprofit Institutions and Volunteering from Statistics Canada)
When Hospitals, Universities and Colleges are included, the nonprofit sector accounted for 7.1% of total Canadian GDP (Satellite Account of Nonprofit Institutions and Volunteering, Statistics Canada 2009)
The core nonprofit sector (i.e., excluding Hospitals, Universities & Colleges) accounted for 2.4% of Canadian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Satellite Account of Nonprofit Institutions and Volunteering, Statistics Canada 2009).

For more reports and facts see: Economic Impact

In 2009, Canadians claimed a total of $7.8 billion in charitable donations. (read more on Imagine Canada's blog)
12.5 million Canadians (46% of the population aged 15 and over), volunteered for charitable and nonprofit organizations. (Canada Survey of Giving Volunteering and Paricipating, 2009)
Collectively, these volunteers contributed just over 2.1 billion volunteer hours, equivalent to almost 1.1 million full-time jobs.(Canada Survey of Giving Volunteering and Paricipating, 2009)

Core non-profit institutions are funded mostly through sales of goods and accounting for 45.6% of total income.
Government transfers make up the second larges significant portion at 19.7%. The remaining one-third of revenue is from membership fees (15.9%), donations from households (12.0%) and investment income (4.9%). (Satellite Account of Nonprofit Institutions and Volunteering, Statistics Canada 2009)

(Satellite Account of Nonprofit Institutions, pp. 19, Statistics Canada, 2009)