Charity sector increases by 20% in five years

The gross income of the charity sector has increased by over 20 percent in the last five years, from £48.4billion in 2008 to £58.48billion in 2012 according to the latest Charity Commission figures.

The Commission publishes annual figures for the charity sector at the end of each year based on income reported by charities in their annual returns. The figures show a steady increase in the sector's income since 2008 despite fluctuation in the total number of charities which has resulted in an overall reduction from 168,354 in 2008 to 162,915 in 2012. This represents a 20.8 percent income boost to the sector despite a 3 percent reduction in the number of charities.

Large charities with an income over £10million appear to be doing best, with the proportion of total gross income held by these charities increasing from 53 percent in 2008 to 57.3 percent in 2012. These figures add to a steady increase in the proportion of income going to the largest charities since the turn of the millennium when the proportion was reported as 41.8 percent, which is apparent despite a change to the way the Commission measures gross income since 2008.

A further 57 charities entered the £10million income bracket in 2012, taking the total number to 958. This is an increase of 28 percent from 747 charities in 2008. The average income per charity in this bracket has also increased marginally in these five years from £34.36million to £34.97million, although there is a marginal decrease from 2011's figures, which showed the average income of the largest charities to be £35.24million.

By contrast, there are currently 122,541 charities with an annual income less than £100,000 sharing 3.6 percent of the overall gross income of the sector, an average of £17,194 per charity.