Number of Charitible Organizations

Question

I’ve been asked for the number of charitable organizations in BC.
The Canada Revenue Agency has a charities database at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/chrts/menu-eng.html. If you click on Advanced Search, you can search by Charity Status (i.e., Canadian Registered Charities) and Province. The results list gives you the number of results (and the actual list of the charities).
Does anyone see a problem with using this number? I tried to find some summary statistics on the CRA site, but no luck.

I should note that this is a follow-up for a question on our provincial chat reference, and the student is from a non-DLI institution.


Answer

The following tables from Cornerstones of Community: Highlights from the National Survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations (61-533-XIE) (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?catno=61-533-XIE?=eng) may also be of interest to the student:

Table 1.10 Nonprofit and voluntary organizations, by province or territory, Canada, 2003 (p.20)

Table 1.11 Charitable status of nonprofit and voluntary organizations, by province or territory, Canada, 2003 (p.20)