Statistics Norway releases nonprofit funding data for the first time

By Chelsea Newhouse on January 22, 2015

Statistics Norway recently released an updated report on its satellite account on nonprofit institutions (NPIs), resulting from their continued implementation of the UN Handbook on Nonprofit Institutions in the System of National Accounts. For the first time, this report includes data on funding, finding that in 2012, NPIs in Norway received a total of NOK 90.5 billion (USD$1.2 billion) in funding to carry out their work. Of this, almost 40 billion came from public sources, which represents about 43 percent of organizations’ overall operating income. Roughly 39 percent of overall nonprofit income was derived from households, while the remainder (approximately 18 percent) was funded by the corporate sector. This income includes both payments for goods and services and philanthropic contributions, but does not include funds contributed for investment purposes.
 
The report shows, however, that distribution of funding sources varied significantly by field. Organizations working within health, social services, and education and research received most of their funding from public sector contributions, while organizations in other fields – such as culture and recreation organizations – relied more heavily on funding from households and corporations.
 
Employment
In total, NPIs employed 83,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) paid workers – an increase of approximately 3,000 over the findings from 2010. While this edition of the satellite account does not provide data on volunteering, based on historical ratios of 1.4 FTE volunteers to each paid worker, Statistics Norway estimates that NPIs likely engaged about 120,000 FTE volunteers in 2012.
 
Value added
In terms of value added, nonprofit institutions are estimated to have contributed NOK 47.7 billion, or to 2.1 percent of the GDP for Mainland Norway, in 2012 – a slight increase from the first estimates provided in 2010. Of this, the organizations working in the social services field accounted for the largest share – about 22 percent – followed by education and research at 19.4 percent, health services at 15.3 percent, and culture and recreation at 14.4 percent.
 
Please visit Statistics Norway’s excellent satellite account on non-profit institutions page to explore data covering 2006-2012 in more detail.
 
To see how Norway’s nonprofit sector compares to those in 15 other countries that have implemented the UN Nonprofit Handbook, check out the Center’s 2013 report, “The State of Global Civil Society and Volunteering: Latest Findings from the implementation of the UN Nonprofit Handbook.”