Rural Canada Non-Profits: Interactive Dashboard

Start of visual interactive dashboard
Embed this product
End of visual interactive dashboard

Key highlights: March 13, 2026

  • In rural and small town Canada, 28,892 non-profit organizations were active. They represented 21.2% of all non-profit organizations nationally and generated $26 billion in revenue.
  • Non-profit organizations in rural and small town areas employed 449,058 people. Nearly three-fifths of these employees were in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.
  • The most common areas of activity of non-profit organizations in rural and small town Canada were religion (22.8%); sports, recreation and social clubs (17.3%); and social services (14.2%).

Previous key highlights

Key highlights: February 17, 2025

  • The total number of non-profit organizations in Canada remained relatively stable from 2021 to 2022, though rural and small town (RST) areas saw a decline while functional urban areas experienced slight growth.
  • Non-profit organizations across Canada brought in more revenue and created more jobs from 2021 to 2022, with growth seen in both RST and functional urban areas.
  • Canadian non-profit organizations continued to focus on activities such as religion, sports, recreation and social clubs, and social services, with priorities staying consistent over time.

Additional information

The Rural Canada Non-Profits (RCNP) interactive dashboard leverages data from the RCNP database to provide an overview of active non-profit organizations (NPOs) in Canada, including counts, revenues, and employee numbers. Data is organized by industry according to North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), by activity type based on the International Classification of Non-Profit Organizations (ICNPO) and by geography (province or territory, census subdivision/municipality, rural and small town area or functional urban area).

Methodology

The RCNP database is derived from the Statistics Canada’s Business Register (BR) which provides information such as business addresses, non-profit/for-profit status, industry, and Canada Revenue Agency filings and tax returns data, including revenue and employment figures.

A NPO is an entity that operates for purposes other than generating profit. Active NPOs are defined as those operational for all or part of the reference year and reporting revenues or employment. For-profit organizations are excluded.

NPOs are classified by their primary industry as identified in the BR. The 2017 NAICS is applied for the reference periods from 2019 to 2021. Starting from the 2022 reference period, the 2022 NAICS is used. Tabulations are provided at the two-digit NAICS (sector) level and include all industry sectors except for Public administration (NAICS 91).

NPOs are also classified based on their primary area of non-profit activity according to the United Nations Handbook on Non-Profit Institutions for the System of National Accounts.

"Rural and small town area" and "functional urban area" are defined by Statistics Canada's Standard Geographical Classification (SGC). NPOs located within census metropolitan areas (CMAs) or census agglomerations (CAs) are classified as part of functional urban areas, while those outside CMAs or CAs are classified as part of rural and small town areas. The 2016 SGC is used for reference period from 2019 to2021. Beginning with the 2022 reference period, the 2021 SGC is applied.

Each reference period aligns with the calendar year, starting on January 1 and ending on December 31.

Considerations

To protect confidentiality, certain values are suppressed in compliance with disclosure control protocols.

Table
Table summary
The information is grouped by Dashboard section (appearing as row headers), , calculated using (appearing as column headers).
Dashboard section Data source Variables Geographical levels
Overview of Canadian active non-profit organizations Table 45-10-0107 Counts
Revenue
Employment
Canada
Province or Territory
Rural and small town or Functional urban area
Census Subdivision (CSD)
Active non-profit organizations by industry Table 45-10-0108 Counts
Revenue
Employment
Canada
Province or Territory
Rural and small town or Functional urban area
International classification of active non-profit organizations Table 45-10-0109 Counts
Revenue
Employment
Canada
Province or Territory
Rural and small town or Functional urban area

Business counts for Table 45-10-0107 are rounded to the nearest multiple of three. A reported value of zero denotes a rounded value between 1 and 3 (inclusive) that was rounded down. This rounding convention applies only to Table 45-10-0107 and does not apply to Tables 45-10-0108 and 45-10-0109.

Other resources

Rural Canada Non-Profits, 2023

Rural Canada Non-Profits Metadata and User Guide, 2023

The Daily: Non-profit organizations in rural and small town Canada, 2023

Infographic: Non-profit organizations in rural and small town Canada, 2023

Learn more

To find more rural and small town Canada products, visit:

Rural Canada Statistics Portal

Rural Statistics in Canada (45-20-0004)

Rural and Small Town Canada Analysis Bulletin (21-006-X)

Date modified: