Insights
Bite-sized facts and figures about UK charities, drawn from the Charity Commission register — one new insight featured daily.
Every single charity currently registered in England and Wales was registered after 1 January 1961 — every one but one. Trinity College Carmarthen is listed as registered on 9 September 1960, making it the earliest registered charity in England and Wales. A glitch in the matrix, or just a very old college?
With over £40 billion collected annually, London is by far the biggest source of charitable income in the UK. But does that generosity still hold once you account for population?
The biggest UK non-profit organisation dedicated to animals is the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds — proof that the British really do care about their local birds.
Cardiff's non-profit organisations collect roughly twice as much money per person as Liverpool's — a real difference in generosity, or just a difference in charity size?
Ever heard of Epsom? This Surrey town harbours the headquarters of the UK's biggest charitable organisation, which collects £1.4 billion annually.
"Cat" appears in the name of 266 charities in the UK. "Dog" only appears in 208. Who knew Britain was a nation of cat-lovers?
Sheffield's charitable income is the lowest of the UK's 10 biggest cities — a surprising gap for a city its size.
There are almost twice as many charities dedicated to bees (58) as to birds (31) — the UK's pollinators have quite the fan club.
London boasts the highest number of registered charities of any UK city, with roughly 25,000 located there alone.
Birmingham has more non-profit organisations than all seven of Wales's cities combined. In terms of money collected, though, the Welsh cities together were 60% stronger.
Over 25,000 non-profits are dedicated to supporting amateur sport — universities such as the University of Chester and Cardiff Metropolitan University are especially active.
With almost £2.5 billion collected, Manchester's charities raise more money than in any other UK city — apart from London, of course.
Despite London's outsized charitable income, only 4 of the UK's 10 biggest non-profit organisations are actually registered there.
Horses and donkeys are the key focus of almost 100 non-profits across the UK.
Despite having roughly half the population of Birmingham, Bristol has 150 more registered charities — over 2,700 in total.
The UK's second-biggest non-profit organisation, with over £1.3 billion collected, is registered in West Malling — a village of fewer than 3,000 people.
Sharks, whales and dolphins are supported by 9 different non-profits across the UK.
Manchester's non-profit income per capita is more than double that of Liverpool, Leeds and Leicester — over £5,000 per person, the highest of any major English city.
Almost £200 million is collected by non-profits every year in the small Welsh city of Bangor — but over 80% of it comes from a single source: Bangor University.
Despite being significantly smaller, Cardiff's charities collect more money than Liverpool's and Sheffield's combined — £1.6 billion in non-profit income makes the Welsh capital one of the UK's biggest charitable hotspots.