Recent data released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs shows that by the third quarter of 2020, China had an official total of 888,517 social organisations, further subdivided into 372,868 social groups, 503,391 social service organizations and 8258 foundations.
While most of the social organisations have registered with the departments of civil affairs at the provincial level or below, there are 1981 social groups, 99 social service organisations and 215 foundations that are registered directly with the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Data shows that across the 31 provincial-level administrative divisions of Mainland China, the total number of social organisations is 886,222. The average number for each administrative division is about 28,522, and there are 12 administrative divisions that exceed the average number.
Four administrative divisions have over 50,000 social organisations: Jiangsu Province, with 97,091 social organisations; Guangdong Province, with 71,912 social organisations, Zhejiang Province, with 70,337 social organisations; and Shandong Province, with 59,279 social organisations.
Twenty-one administrative divisions have between 10,000 and 50,000 social organizations. Among them, Henan and Sichuan provinces have more than 40,000 organisations; Hunan Province, Anhui Province, Fujian Province, Hebei Province and Shaanxi Province have more than 30,000 social organisations; Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Jiangxi Province, Liaoning Province, Yunnan Province, Gansu Province and Heilongjiang Province have more than 20,000 social organisations; and Chongqing municipality, Shanxi Province, Shanghai municipality, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Guizhou Province, Jilin Province and Beijing municipality have over 10,000 social organisations operating.
Administrative divisions where there are less than 10,000 social organisations include the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Hainan Province, Qinghai Province, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Tianjin municipality and the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
If looking at each category of social organisations across the country, foundations are in the lowest number out of the three groups. Only Guangdong Province has more than 1,000 foundations (1267 foundations, to be precise). Following Guangdong are Zhejiang Province (795 foundations), Beijing Municipality (791 foundations), Jiangsu Province (757 foundations), Hebei Province (533 foundations), Shanghai Municipality (476 foundations), Fujian Province (409 foundations), Hunan Province (371 foundations) and Shandong Province (223 foundations).
What deserves special attention, as pointed out by Wang Yong in a Charity Times report, is that although Beijing ranks 25th for the total number of social organisations, it takes third place for the number of foundations. The same situation also occurs in Shanghai, which takes the 21st place for the total number of social organisations and the sixth place for the number of foundations. He argues that this shows, to some extent, that philanthropic resources in Beijing and Shanghai are more abundant than in most places in China. In the other two provincial-level municipalities of Tianjin and Chongqing, the number of foundations is only 103 and 88.
Fourteen administrative divisions have between 100 and 200 foundations, including Sichuan Province, Hubei Province, Anhui Province, Shaanxi Province, Henan Province, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Shanxi Province, Heilongjiang Province, Jilin Province, Hainan Province, Yunnan Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Liaoning Province and Tianjin Municipality. The administrative divisions with less than 100 foundations are Chongqing Municipality, Jiangxi Province, Gansu Province, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Guizhou Province, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province and the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
The average number of foundations in the 31 administrative divisions is 259, and only eight of them exceed the average number: Guangdong Province, Zhejiang Province, Beijing Municipality, Jiangsu Province, Hebei Province, Shanghai Municipality, Fujian Province and Hunan Province.
Compared to foundations, social groups and social services organisations are in much greater numbers. Data released shows that 16 administrative divisions have more than 10,000 social groups and 17 administrative divisions have more than 10,000 social services organisations.
Out of the three categories, social services organisations are in the greatest number. The total number of social services organisations in 31 administrative divisions is 503,292, and the average number of each administrative division is 16,232. Eleven provinces have exceeded the average number, including Jiangsu Province (58,404), Zhejiang Province (43,894), Shandong Province (40,778), Guangdong Province (38,775), Henan Province (33,604), Sichuan Province (24,342), Hebei Province (21,610), Hunan Province (20,585), Liaoning Province (18,953), Hubei Province (18,939) and Anhui Province (18,642). In addition, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Jiangxi Province, Fujian Province, Shaanxi Province, Heilongjiang Province and Shanghai Municipality each have more than 10,000 social services organisations.
There are fourteen administrative divisions with less than 10,000 established social services organisations: Chongqing Municipality, Shanxi Province, Yunnan Province, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Beijing Municipality, Jilin Province, Gansu Province, Guizhou Province, Hainan Province, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Tianjin Municipality, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province and the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
In terms of social groups, their number is slightly lower than the social service organisations. In total, the 31 administrative divisions have 370,877 social groups, among which Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces have the largest numbers: 37,930 and 31,870 respectively. Zhejiang and Sichuan provinces have over 20,000 social groups each, with 25,648 and 20,880 respectively.
Twelve administrative divisions have 10,000 to 20,000 social groups, including Fujian Province, Shandong Province, Shaanxi Province, Gansu Province, Hunan Province, Anhui Province, Yunnan Province, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Henan Province, Hubei Province, Jiangxi Province and Hebei Province. Finally, fifteen administrative divisions have less than 10,000 social groups each: Chongqing Municipality, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Shanxi Province, Guizhou Province, Heilongjiang Province, Liaoning Province, Jilin Province, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Beijing Municipality, Qinghai Province, Shanghai Municipality, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Hainan Province, Tianjin Municipality and the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
