Satellite Account of Non-profit Institutions and Volunteering

Detailed information for 2007 to 2017

Status:

Active

Frequency:

Annual

Record number:

5110

This account provides statistics on the economic contribution of the non-profit sector in Canada.

Data release - March 5, 2019

Description

The Satellite Account of Non-profit Institutions and Volunteering was designed to measure the contribution of the non-profit sector to the Canadian economy. Estimates in the satellite account are built from a wide range of data sources, including administrative files (tax records), Statistics Canada surveys and public accounts information. They are compiled according to international standards within the Canadian System of National Accounts.

For the purposes of these estimates, the definition of the non-profit sector adheres to international standards published in the United Nations' Handbook of National Accounting: Satellite Account on Non-profit and Related Institutions and Volunteer Work. Canada's overall non-profit sector is divided into three broad categories as follows:

Community non-profit institutions: including organizations engaged, for example, in social services, advocacy or sports and recreation. These make up the "non-profit institutions serving households" sector in standard macroeconomic measures.

Business non-profit institutions: including, for example, business association, chambers of commerce and condominium associations. These are classified to the business sector in standard measures.

Government non-profit institutions: including, hospitals, some residential care facilities, universities and colleges. These are classified to the government sector in standard measures.

The economic value of volunteer activity cited in this document is derived by assigning a wage rate for social service occupations to hours volunteered from Statistics Canada's General Social Survey - Giving, Volunteering and Participating.

Statistical activity

The Canadian System of National Accounts (CSNA) provides a conceptually integrated statistical framework for studying the state and behavior of the Canadian economy. The accounts are centered on the measurement of activities associated with the production of goods and services, the sales of goods and services in final markets, the supporting financial transactions, and the resulting wealth positions.

To produce financial statistics, the CSNA measures the economic dimensions of the public sector of Canada, including the financial inter-relationships among the thousands of entities that make up the three levels of government in Canada (federal, provincial and territorial, and local). In order to carry out this program, the CSNA maintains a universe of all public sector entities including their complex inter-relationships.

Subjects

  • Economic accounts
  • Society and community
  • Volunteering and donating

Data sources and methodology

Target population

For the purposes of these estimates, the definition of the non-profit sector adheres to international standards published in the United Nations Handbook of Satellite Accounts on Non-profit and Related Institutions and Volunteer Work. Canada's overall non-profit sector is divided into three broad categories as follows:

Community non-profit institutions: including organizations engaged, for example, in social services, advocacy or sports and recreation. These make up the "non-profit institutions serving households" sector in standard macroeconomic measures.

Business non-profit institutions: including, for example, business associations, chambers of commerce and condominium associations. These are classified to the business sector in standard measures.

Government non-profit institutions: including, hospitals, some residential care facilities, universities and colleges. These are classified to the government sector in standard measures.

Instrument design

This methodology does not apply.

Sampling

This methodology does not apply.

Data sources

Data are extracted from administrative files and derived from other Statistics Canada surveys and/or other sources.

The definition of the non-profit sector for the satellite account is consistent with international standards laid out in the United Nations' Handbook of National Accounting: Satellite Account on Non-profit and Related Institutions and Volunteer Work. Estimates draw on a broad variety of data sources, including administrative files on registered charities, non-profit organizations and tax-exempt corporations, along with a range of Statistics Canada datasets and indicators. Compiled within the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts, results are fully comparable to standard macroeconomic concepts, such as the gross domestic product. Estimates of the economic value of volunteer activity cited in this document are based on Statistics Canada's General Social Survey - Giving, Volunteering and Participating, undertaken on a five year cycle.

Error detection

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Imputation

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Estimation

The System of National Accounts provides a powerful integrating framework for economic statistics on the non-profit sector. A wide range of data sources are available on key dimensions of Canadian non-profit institutions, and these can be combined and integrated into an SNA framework to build satellite account estimates. Confronting multiple data sources in a comprehensive and coherent accounting system strengthens data quality and allows for the full exploitation of all available source data.

The standard economic accounts for the Satellite Account of Non-profit Institutions and Volunteering draw heavily on administrative files (tax data) to build estimates, while alternate sources are used for key segments of the non-profit sector or for specific variables in the account.

Standard economic accounts
Compiling national accounts statistics on Canadian non-profit institutions required the development of an extensive infrastructure to integrate multiple administrative files and other sources. In Canada, there is no single comprehensive source of administrative data on non-profit institutions. Rather they are identifiable on a range of data files, none of which is exhaustive and each of which, taken individually, has important limitations. These files cover registered charities (the T3010 data file), non-profit institutions (the T1044 file), tax-exempt corporations (from T2 Corporate Income Tax returns and the Generalized Index of Financial Information), and public sector bodies eligible for rebates under the Goods and Services Tax system (the GST Public Sector Bodies Rebate File).

Administrative files containing individual tax returns are provided in raw, unedited form by the Canadian Revenue Agency. They are processed, edited and imputed at Statistics Canada and then merged and unduplicated via a unique identifier (the Business Number, assigned in the Canadian tax system). Industry codes are assigned via Statistics Canada's Business Register and wages and salaries for each employer are obtained from the T4 Statement of Remuneration and Benefits data file. Supplemental NPIs not found on the other administrative files are identified on the T4 file via their industry code according to the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS).

With this infrastructure in place, the full universe of records is filtered to ensure that certain categories of entities that do not belong in the non-profit sector are eliminated. Examples of entities that appear on the administrative files due to their legal or tax-exempt status but which are out-of-scope according to the international definition include: public elementary and secondary schools and school boards, municipalities and municipal organizations, federal and provincial government entities, first nations government entities, pension funds, government business enterprises and other for-profit entities that may have tax-exempt status.

This universe of non-profit administrative records and its associated financial information is heavily exploited to build estimates for variables throughout the standard economic accounts. However, in a number of specific cases, either for particular variables or key segments of the non-profit universe, alternate sources are available.

Classification by primary area of activity
Satellite account estimates for both the standard accounts and the nonmarket extension are classified by primary area of activity according to the International Classification of Non-profit Organizations (ICNPO). This classification was developed through the Johns Hopkins Comparative Non-profit Sector Project, when existing industrial classification systems were found to lack sufficient detail to adequately describe the activity of the non-profit sector.

Quality evaluation

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects that could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

In order to prevent any data disclosure, confidentiality analysis is done using the Statistics Canada Generalized Disclosure Control System (G-Confid). G-Confid is used for primary suppression (direct disclosure) as well as for secondary suppression (residual disclosure). Direct disclosure occurs when the value in a tabulation cell is composed of or dominated by few enterprises while residual disclosure occurs when confidential information can be derived indirectly by piecing together information from different sources or data series.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Data accuracy

No direct measures of the margin of error in the estimates can be calculated. The quality of the estimates can be inferred from analysis of revisions and from a subjective assessment of the data sources and methodology used in the preparation of the estimates.

Documentation

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