Tuesday, September 28, 2004

SPOTLIGHT: Voluntary sector

Huge economic impact

THE ECONOMIC contribution of the non-profit sector is larger than many major industries.

In 1999, the sector’s gross domestic product (GDP) – the value of the productive activity generated as non-profit organizations undertake their missions – was estimated at $61.8 billion, or 6.8% of the total economy. Hospitals, universities and colleges account for the lion’s share of non-profit economic activity.

Because the non-profit sector relies heavily on volunteers to undertake its activities, standard measures of GDP are extended to include a replacement cost value of volunteer work. This represents the cost to replace volunteer effort if the same services were purchased on the labour market.

Extended measures of the sector’s contribution, which take into account the value of volunteer work, were estimated for 1997. In that year, standard GDP was $57.5 billion and accounted for 6.9% of the economy.

When the value of volunteer work is added to this figure, the economic contribution of the non-profit sector increases to 8.6 %. Volunteer labour services contribute an additional $14.1 billion, accounting for nearly 20% of the total extended value of the sector’s GDP.

The sector’s extended GDP is more than 11 times that of the motor vehicle manufacturing industry, over four times larger than agriculture, and over twice the value of the mining, oil and gas extraction industry.

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© 2004, Statistics Canada.