Profile
Number of voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations*:
1.0 VCSE Workforce Composition
The voluntary and community sector remains an important employer in Northern Ireland, with an estimated 53,620 employees. This figure represents 7% of the total Northern Ireland workforce
Based on findings from NICVA's Workforce Survey 2018, 66.7% of organisations (n=156) employed paid staff. The average number of employees in these organisations was 14.4.
58% of staff were employed on a full-time basis.
- 58% of staff employed in organisations that responded to NICVA's Workforce Survey 2018 were employed in full-time roles
- The proportion of full-time roles is marginally lower than the proportion of full-time roles in the UK voluntary and community sector as a whole (64%), and compared to the overall Northern Ireland workforce in all sectors (65.4%)
- 13.4% of organisations employed/involved ROI nationals and 14.3% of organisations employed/involved EU mainland nationals (Non-ROI)
As of February 2020, the proportion of the 6,122 charities registered with the CCNI in Northern Ireland which also had a remit outside of Northern Ireland were as follows - ROI (6.46%), Internationally (6.17%) and UK (4.06%).
As presented in the heatmap and table below, the constituency containing the highest proportion of NI’s voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations was Belfast South (8.38%) followed by Fermanagh and South Tyrone (6.89%) and North Antrim (6.53%).
| Constituency | Number | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Belfast East | 319 | 5.66% |
| Belfast North | 317 | 5.63% |
| Belfast South | 472 | 8.38% |
| Belfast West | 214 | 3.80% |
| East Antrim | 245 | 4.35% |
| East Londonderry | 318 | 5.64% |
| Fermanagh and South Tyrone | 388 | 6.89% |
| Foyle | 294 | 5.22% |
| Lagan Valley | 329 | 5.84% |
| Mid Ulster | 317 | 5.63% |
| Newry and Armagh | 363 | 6.44% |
| North Antrim | 368 | 6.53% |
| North Down | 285 | 5.06% |
| South Antrim | 260 | 4.61% |
| South Down | 327 | 5.80% |
| Strangford | 244 | 4.33% |
| Upper Bann | 285 | 5.06% |
| West Tyrone | 289 | 5.13% |
| Total | 5634 ** | 100.00% |
As presented in the heatmap below, the council areas containing the highest proportion of NI’s voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations were Belfast (21.28%), Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon (10.51%) and Newry, Mourne and Down (8.43%).
| Council | Number | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Antrim and Newtownabbey | 328 | 5.82% |
| Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon | 592 | 10.51% |
| Belfast | 1199 | 21.28% |
| Causeway Coast and Glens | 464 | 8.24% |
| Derry and Strabane | 426 | 7.56% |
| Fermanagh and Omagh | 413 | 7.33% |
| Lisburn and Castlereagh | 394 | 6.99% |
| Mid and East Antrim | 412 | 7.31% |
| Mid Ulster | 461 | 8.18% |
| Newry, Mourne and Down | 475 | 8.43% |
| North Down and Ards | 470 | 8.34% |
| Total | 5634 ** | 100.00% |
* The data for the number of VCSE sector organisations was sourced on 17 February 2020 from the CCNI website. These figures are subject to change on the CCNI register when new charities charities or charities have been removed.
** 448 charities have been omitted from this data as they had no valid postcode or were using an address for correspondence purposes only but were located elsewhere in NI.
