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Number of voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations:
You can find the data used in this section on NICVA's Data Portal.
Close to two-thirds of respondents to the State of the Sector Survey (70%/ n=577) identified themselves as a voluntary organisation. One-quarter of respondents (25%) identified themselves as a community group, while 5% stated they were a social enterprise.
The majority of respondents (81%/ n=666) were based only in Northern Ireland, which mirrors findings from the previous State of the Sector research (80.4%). 6.7% were part of a UK wide organisation while 5.8% were part of an all Ireland organisation.
As presented in the heatmap below, the constituency with the highest proportion of voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations was Belfast South (10.62%). This was followed by Belfast North (7.56%) and Fermanagh and South Tyrone (6.53%).
| Constituency | Percent of Organisations |
|---|---|
Belfast East | 5.18 |
Belfast North | 7.56 |
Belfast South | 10.62 |
Belfast West | 5.86 |
East Antrim | 3.49 |
East Londonderry | 5.09 |
Fermanagh and South Tyrone | 6.53 |
Foyle | 6.49 |
Lagan Valley | 4.36 |
Mid Ulster | 4.97 |
Newry and Armagh | 6.48 |
North Antrim | 5.38 |
North Down | 3.89 |
South Antrim | 3.49 |
South Down | 5.38 |
Strangford | 3.54 |
Upper Bann | 6.21 |
West Tyrone | 5.49 |
As presented in the heatmap below, the three council areas with the highest proportion of voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations were Belfast (26.89%), Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon (10.9%) and Derry and Strabane (9.18%).
| Council | Percent of Organisations |
|---|---|
| Antrim and Newtownabbey | 4.57 |
| Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon | 10.90 |
| Belfast | 26.89 |
| Causeway Coast and Glens | 7.27 |
| Derry and Strabane | 9.18 |
| Fermangh and Omagh | 7.07 |
| Lisburn and Castlereagh | 5.82 |
| Mid and East Antrim | 5.87 |
| Mid Ulster | 7.46 |
| Newry, Mourne and Down | 8.51 |
| North Down and Ards | 6.45 |
The top five areas of work identified by respondents in the State of the Sector Survey were community development, education and training, health and wellbeing and children (6-13 years) and children (0-5 years).
