Economic value of non-profit institutions measured

28 August 2007

Economic value of non-profit institutions measured

For the first time, comprehensive information about the economic contribution of non-profit institutions in New Zealand is available, in a report released by Statistics New Zealand today. The Non-profit Institutions Satellite Account: 2004 also features information on the income and expenditure of non-profit institutions, the economic value of volunteering for these institutions, and profiles of each of the twelve activity groups that non-profit institutions are classified by.

Non-profit institutions contributed $3.64 billion or 2.6 percent to New Zealand’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2004. Over one million (1,011,600) volunteers gave more than 270 million hours of unpaid labour to non-profit institutions in 2004. When valued at a market wage, the value of this voluntary labour increases the economic contribution of non-profit institutions to $6.95 billion or 4.9 percent of GDP. This is similar to the contribution of the entire construction industry.

The largest economic contribution from non-profit institutions was from the social services group, which includes services for the disabled, food banks and counselling services. Private education and research such as kindergartens, private schools or industry training organisations also made a large contribution, as did grant makers and fundraisers such as the community trusts and gaming trusts operating poker machines. Australian non-profit institutions reported a similar economic contribution to New Zealand institutions, at 4.7 percent.

Similar information has been released internationally for only seven other countries. This international work was initiated by the United Nations Statistics Division and Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore). Statistics New Zealand has also today released an abridged publication, QuickStats About Non-profit Institutions in New Zealand, which presents the highlights of the main report.

Both publications are available from the Statistics NZ website, www.stats.govt.nz. Cathryn Ashley-Jones Acting Government Statistician 28 August 2007

ENDS

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