Contents
- Nonprofit organization counts statistics: What IRS national totals include
- Nonprofit organization counts statistics by 501(c) exemption classification
- Nonprofit organization counts statistics for charitable, social, and membership groups
- nonprofit organization counts: Nonprofit establishment counts by health and social assistance industry
- nonprofit organization counts: Nonprofit establishment counts in education and other services
- Sources
Nonprofit organization counts statistics: What IRS national totals include
“Nonprofit organization counts” can refer to different units. The IRS’s Exempt Organizations Business Master File (EO BMF) is a cumulative extract of records for exempt organizations, with the most recent information available to the IRS. Its page reported 1,975,975 records in a data posting dated October 13, 2026. That is a record count for the extract, not an industry count of operating locations. The IRS also notes that state and region labels use filing address and represent headquarters location, which may differ from where an organization operates. (IRS EO BMF)
A separate IRS Data Book measure covers fiscal year 2025. Table 2-6 reports 2,068,741 tax-exempt organizations, nonexempt charitable trusts, and nonexempt split-interest trusts combined. Within its listed categories, the table reports 1,916,367 recognized Section 501(c) organizations. Its footnote says that recognized total includes organizations that applied for and received recognition of exempt status or are exempt by treaty. The same table separately lists 239 recognized Section 501(d) religious and apostolic associations. (IRS Data Book 2025, Table 2-6)
These figures should be read with their labels intact. The BMF record count is tied to a cumulative extract and a specific posting date. The Data Book total combines categories named in its row for FY 2025; the 501(c) total is a recognized-classification count, and 501(d) is shown separately. They do not describe an identical population or counting frame. (IRS EO BMF; IRS Data Book 2025, Table 2-6)
Nonprofit organization counts statistics by 501(c) exemption classification
The IRS Data Book gives a detailed view of recognized Section 501(c) categories for FY 2025. Section 501(c)(3), covering religious, charitable, and similar organizations, is the largest listed classification at 1,596,231. The table’s footnote says this count includes private foundations and certain group-exemption organizations, but excludes 501(c)(3) organizations that have not applied for recognition. It is therefore not a count of every organization described in 501(c)(3). (IRS Data Book 2025, Table 2-6 and footnote 2)
Other large listed categories include 69,617 Section 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations, 57,916 Section 501(c)(6) business leagues, 46,735 Section 501(c)(7) social and recreation clubs, and 43,580 Section 501(c)(5) labor and agriculture organizations. These labels distinguish organizations by the exemption subsection reported in the table; they are not industry categories. (IRS Data Book 2025, Table 2-6)
| Recognized Section 501(c) classification | Organizations, FY 2025 |
|---|---|
| (1) Corporations organized under Act of Congress | 753 |
| (2) Title-holding corporations | 4,051 |
| (3) Religious, charitable, and similar organizations | 1,596,231 |
| (4) Social welfare organizations | 69,617 |
| (5) Labor and agriculture organizations | 43,580 |
| (6) Business leagues | 57,916 |
| (7) Social and recreation clubs | 46,735 |
| (8) Fraternal beneficiary societies | 35,127 |
| (9) Voluntary employees’ beneficiary associations | 5,386 |
| (10) Domestic fraternal beneficiary societies | 14,486 |
| (12) Benevolent life insurance associations | 5,381 |
| (13) Cemetery companies | 9,643 |
| (14) State-chartered credit unions | 1,399 |
| (15) Mutual insurance companies | 571 |
| (17) Supplemental unemployment compensation trusts | 82 |
| (19) Veterans’ organizations | 24,848 |
| (25) Holding companies for pensions and other entities | 512 |
| Other 501(c) subsections, as grouped in the table | 49 |
The table reproduces the categories and counts reported in Data Book Table 2-6; it does not fill in subsection numbers absent from the selected rows. The “other” grouping is a source-defined category, with its included subsections and related categories described in the table’s footnote. The classifications also span very different kinds of entities, from social clubs and veterans’ organizations to cemetery companies and credit unions. The counts are useful for seeing how the IRS’s recognized categories are distributed, but they do not by themselves measure service locations, membership, revenue, or employment. (IRS Data Book 2025, Table 2-6 and footnote 3)
Nonprofit organization counts statistics for charitable, social, and membership groups
The Data Book includes other categories alongside the Section 501(c) rows. It reports 49,048 Section 527 political organizations and 103,087 nonexempt charitable trusts and split-interest trusts for FY 2025. The latter is a combined row, so the supplied figure does not separate charitable trusts from split-interest trusts. Those rows are part of the broader set of categories reported in Table 2-6, but their wording and status differ from the recognized 501(c) subsections. (IRS Data Book 2025, Table 2-6)
The 501(c) categories also show that “nonprofit” covers organizations with different purposes and institutional forms. The IRS lists social welfare organizations, labor and agriculture organizations, business leagues, social and recreation clubs, fraternal beneficiary societies, and veterans’ organizations separately. A table label indicates the classification attached to the count; it should not be stretched into a claim about what every organization does in practice. (IRS Data Book 2025, Table 2-6)
For an establishment-based perspective, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says its nonprofit research covers Section 501(c)(3) organizations. Its 2022 highlights report over 300,000 nonprofit establishments. That is a rounded lower-bound headline, not an exact count, and its population is 501(c)(3) establishments. The figure is not directly interchangeable with the IRS totals for recognized exemption categories, trusts, or cumulative records. (BLS Nonprofit Sector Research Data, 2018–2022 highlights)
Read together, the IRS and BLS figures answer different questions: IRS rows count organizations within named tax classifications or combined categories, while BLS’s headline describes establishments in its 501(c)(3) research. One organization may have a different relationship to locations or establishments than a simple one-to-one count suggests; the available figures do not provide a conversion between these units. (IRS Data Book 2025, Table 2-6; BLS Nonprofit Sector Research Data)
nonprofit organization counts: Nonprofit establishment counts by health and social assistance industry
BLS’s detailed 2017 annual estimates show the number of private-sector nonprofit establishments identified on the BLS Business Register. For health care and social assistance overall, the table reports 138,319 nonprofit establishments. Within that broad industry, the reported figures include 67,884 in social assistance, 36,058 in ambulatory health care services, 29,205 in nursing and residential care facilities, and 5,171 in hospitals. These are establishment counts, not counts of all legal nonprofit organizations. (BLS Monthly Labor Review, Table 3)
| Health and social assistance industry | Nonprofit establishments, 2017 annual estimate |
|---|---|
| Health care and social assistance | 138,319 |
| Social assistance | 67,884 |
| Ambulatory health care services | 36,058 |
| Nursing and residential care facilities | 29,205 |
| Hospitals | 5,171 |
The broad industry total and its named subindustry rows provide a view of where the BLS’s 501(c)(3) establishments were counted in 2017. The figures do not establish why one industry has more establishments than another, nor do they describe current counts. The annual-estimate period matters: these values belong to 2017, while the BLS headline cited above is for 2022. (BLS Monthly Labor Review, Table 3; BLS Nonprofit Sector Research Data)
nonprofit organization counts: Nonprofit establishment counts in education and other services
BLS Table 3 reports 32,832 nonprofit educational services establishments in its 2017 annual estimates. Two listed components are 12,879 elementary and secondary school establishments and 5,331 college, university, and professional school establishments. The table’s industry labels are specific: the educational-services total and the school rows should be retained as reported rather than treated as a count of every educational nonprofit entity. (BLS Monthly Labor Review, Table 3)
For other services except public administration, BLS counted 64,730 nonprofit establishments in 2017. The table separately identifies 15,261 establishments in arts, entertainment, and recreation. These are industry-based establishment figures for the national private sector and BLS’s 501(c)(3) research population. They do not broaden the IRS’s recognized exemption-category counts, and they should not be presented as a current-year inventory. (BLS Monthly Labor Review, Table 3)
Across the BLS observations here, health care and social assistance, education, and other services each provide a different industry lens. The 2017 estimates include the broad health care and social assistance total and selected rows within it, an educational-services total with selected school rows, and an other-services total with an arts, entertainment, and recreation row. Because these are classified establishment counts, they complement the IRS organization counts without replacing them. (BLS Monthly Labor Review, Table 3)