New Sector Overview Report now available
A new version of the Sector Overview Report has been released by OSCR. The report provides an outline of the charity sector in Scotland over the last three months, based on the information provided by charities on the Scottish Charity Register.
The report details the scale and scope of the charity sector, what it looks like and what issues are influencing and challenging charities in Scotland. It is a dynamic, interactive report which allows readers to filter data and select different options to view the most relevant information.
Some of the key figures from the report, which covers the period from January to March 2024, include:
- In total, 743 charities were registered in 2023. 1,130 charities were removed from the Scottish Charity Register in 2023. This is significantly higher than 2022’s figure of 678, thanks to our ongoing work to remove inactive charities.
- 210 charities have been registered in the last quarter, and 261 charities have been removed from the Scottish Charity Register.
- 53% of charities have an income of less than £25,000. Around a third of Scottish charities (31%) have an income below £5,000.
- There are 181,258 charity trustees across all Scottish charities.
- Charities employ 218,323 people as paid staff, however, 69% of charities employ no paid staff and are run entirely by volunteers, including the charity trustees.
- Just under half (45%) of charities are set up to benefit children or young people.
- The majority of charities in Scotland are focused on a local area, with 41% operating in a specific local point, community or neighbourhood and a further 25% operating within one local authority area.
The updated interactive report can be found on our Sector Overview Report page, along with PDF versions of previous reports.