New Zealand's Community Sector


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New Zealand’s Community Sector Larger than Thought

Adapted from an article in ‘The National Business Review’

Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Ruth Dyson recently launched a new research report into New Zealand's community sector. The report shows that our community sector is proportionately larger than in other countries and relies more heavily on volunteers. Volunteers make up 67 % of New Zealand's non-profit workforce, compared with an average of 42 % in other countries.

The report’s other findings include:

• the sector has a workforce of 200,000 full time paid and volunteer staff

• the sector is 70 percent proportionately larger than those in the study's other countries

• non-profit organisations make up about 5 percent of the economy

The report is part of a large international project by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies. The project aims to improve the visibility of the non-profit sector at an international level. In New Zealand the research was overseen by the Committee for the Study of the New Zealand Non-Profit Sector.

References and related links

NZPA, 12 August 2008 <http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/community-sector-larger-thought-report-33935>

Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector