Economic value of non-profit institutions measured

For the first time, comprehensive information about the economic contribution of non-profit institutions inNew Zealand is available, in a report released by Statistics New Zealand today.

The Non-profit InstitutionsSatellite Account: 2004 also features information on the income and expenditure of non-profitinstitutions, the economic value of volunteering for these institutions, and profiles of each of the twelveactivity 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 labourto non-profit institutions in 2004.

When valued at a market wage, the value of this voluntary labourincreases the economic contribution of non-profit institutions to $6.95 billion or 4.9 percent of GDP.

This issimilar 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 researchsuch as kindergartens, private schools or industry training organisations also made a large contribution, asdid grant makers and fundraisers such as the community trusts and gaming trusts operating pokermachines.

Australian non-profit institutions reported a similar economic contribution to New Zealand institutions, at 4.7percent. Similar information has been released internationally for only seven other countries.

Thisinternational 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-profitInstitutions in New Zealand, which presents the highlights of the main report. Both publications are availablefrom the Statistics NZ website, www.stats.govt.nz.