Evidence library

This report presents findings from the UK Third and Civil Society Sector Database (the ‘Data Spine’), a research infrastructure that brings together data from ten UK regulatory sources to provide a comprehensive picture of the civil society sector.

The Data Spine was developed by Braw Data Ltd as part of an ESRC and DCMS-funded research project, in collaboration with the Third Sector Research Centre at the University of Birmingham and partner institutions at the Universities of Southampton, Oxford, Stirling, and the West of Scotland.

The Data Spine contains records for over 770,000 civil society organisations drawn from across the UK. These include charities registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (CCEW), the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI), as well as Community Interest Companies (CICs), co-operatives and mutuals, and other nonprofit companies registered at Companies House.

Key Findings

• Growth: Charity incomes have grown in nominal terms across most ICNPTSO sectors, but real (inflation-adjusted) income growth has been modest or even negative for many sectors since 2008.
• Surplus/deficits: Between 30% and 45% of charities and CICs report expenditure exceeding income in any given year, with notable spikes during the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Organisation size and procurement: Public procurement is dominated by large and major organisations. Among charities, those with incomes between £1m and £100m account for nearly two-thirds of contracts and an even larger share of funding. The pattern is similar for CICs, where large and major CICs account for over 60% of contracts. Micro and small organisations of all types are almost entirely absent from procurement markets.