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§ 1.4 STATISTICAL PROFILE OF CHARITABLE SECTORare there in the United States?” 102 The simple answer is: millions. There are “severalmillion” nonprofit organizations, although “no one really knows how many.” 103In an understatement, the observation was made that “[m]easuring thenumber of organizations in the independent sector is a complex activity, largelybecause of the diversity of its components.” 104 There are several reasons for this.One reason is that church organizations (of which there are an estimated354,000 105 ) are not required to file annual information returns with the IRS, 106 sodata concerning them is difficult to amass. Also, hundreds of organizations fallunder a group exemption 107 and thus are not separately identified. Further,smaller nonprofit organizations need not seek recognition of tax exemption fromthe IRS 108 and/or need not annually report to that agency. 109Certainly, it appears that the number of nonprofit organizations that are formallyrecognized by a government is approaching 2 million. The most recentanalysis posits the number at 1.8 million nonprofit organizations. 110 In 1998, thenumber of them was estimated to be approximately 1.6 million. 111 This number,however, was principally based on entities reporting to the IRS.In 1998, nonprofit organizations represented 6 percent of total U.S. operatingorganizations (27.7 million entities). (For-profit organizations constituted 94 percentof total entities.) The number of reporting charitable and social welfareorganizations (874,000) increased by 31 percent between 1987 and 1997, surpassingthe growth rate of the business and governmental sectors. 112 The IRS data onthis subject are discussed below. 113In 1998, total national income was $7.27 trillion. The nonprofit organizationssector’s share of this was 6.7 percent. The value of volunteer time for that yearwas $225.9 billion. The value of volunteer time as a share of national incomeincreased from 121.8 billion in 1977 to 221.8 billion in 1998. 114 In 1998, an estimated144.1 million individuals received compensation for work. Charitableand social welfare organizations increased their share of total employment from5.3 percent in 1977 to 7.1 percent in 1998. With volunteer time taken into account,the 1998 percentage of the sector’s total national employment was 10.8 percent. 115102 Nonprofit Nation at 8.103 Id. at 1.104 Id. at 8. The point was articulated more forcefully in the fifth edition (1996) of the Nonprofit Almanac, whereit was stated that “[c]ounting the number of institutions in the independent sector is a challenge.” NonprofitAlmanac at 25.105 Nonprofit Almanac at 5. The term church includes analogous religious congregations, such as temples andmosques.106 See Tax-Exempt Organizations § 24.3.107 See Tax-Exempt Organizations § 23.6.108 These are organizations that normally do not generate more than $5,000 in revenue. See Tax-Exempt Organizations§ 23.3(b).109 These are organizations that normally do not generate more than $25,000 annually in revenue. See Tax-ExemptOrganizations § 24.3.110 Nonprofit Nation at 1.111 Nonprofit Almanac at 8.112 Id. at 7.113 See § 1.5, text accompanied by notes 130–132.114 Nonprofit Almanac at 15.115 Id. at 19. 21