What the records show that the sector can’t see
Twenty findings about England’s charities, from the public registers, the annual reports charities file, the 2021 Census and the indices of deprivation. Each is a count over groups of charities and places; no charity is named, scored or ranked. Each stood a test written down before it was run.
Who does the work
Who helps people with mental health, food poverty, homelessness or caring in England?
Mostly charities that are not named for them. In 22 of 23 fields of charity work, more charities outside the field say in their own reports that they serve its people than there are charities in the field at all: for mental health, 12,312 against 416; for food, 8,148 against 450; for homelessness, 5,908 against 145; for unpaid carers, 1,708 against 173.
What happens where a charity network is thin in an area?
Other charities stand in. In 22 of 23 fields, the thinner a body's network is in an area, the larger the share of charities naming its people that sit outside the field. A network's map of its own reach is not a map of where its people are helped.
Do large charities make need more visible?
Yes. In every one of 23 fields, areas with more charities of £1 million and over per resident have more charities naming the field's people, after allowing for need, size, low incomes and the number of charities.
Where the gaps are
Which places in England are thin in many fields of charity work at once?
More often the poorer ones: the more residents on low incomes, the more fields in which an area has little or none of the field's national network. Leaving aside three with tiny populations, the areas thin in most fields are Portsmouth, Barking and Dagenham, Hartlepool, Thurrock, Havering, Hillingdon, Lambeth, Redbridge, Redcar and Cleveland and Wokingham.
How is charity income shared in the places where help is thinnest?
In fewer hands. The more fields an area is thin in, the larger the share of its charity income held by its five largest charities.
Where in England are there more charities per resident?
Where fewer residents are on low incomes and more hold degrees. Charity density falls with the share of residents on low incomes and rises strongly with the share with degrees.
Are new charities founded where they are most needed?
Mostly where charities already are. Places dense with charities registered before 2000 are dense with charities registered since 2015 too: the deserts persist.
Does charity money flow towards poorer areas?
No. Charities' income per resident is lower in poorer areas, the reverse of what has been expected.
Money and exposure
Are charities that depend on government money more financially exposed?
Yes. Those taking half or more of their income from government show under three months' reserves or three years of deficits 26.1% of the time, against 20.4%, and hold 3.4 months of reserves against 4.7.
Do charities in deprived neighbourhoods face more financial risk?
The poorest places pay twice. Among government-dependent charities, 30.1% in the most deprived neighbourhoods are fragile against 21.6% in the least: a gap of 8.5 points. Among other charities the gap is 2.3 points.
Are charities in deprived neighbourhoods growing as fast as others?
No. Charities in the most deprived neighbourhoods grew less over their last five returns: a median of 36% against 42%.
Which fields of charity work are most financially exposed?
Drug and alcohol charities, local infrastructure bodies and rural community charities: 24, 21 and 20 points more often fragile than charities in general.
Membership bodies
Are the members of charity membership bodies more exposed than the rest of their field?
Mostly, yes. In 18 of 23 bodies, members are more often fragile than the other charities doing the same work by name; in 16 of 21 they are more often dependent on government money. Members are the service-delivering, contract-funded part of a field; the rest of the field by name is mostly small and volunteer-run.
Do the members of membership bodies write more about the people they serve?
Yes. In 18 of 20 bodies, a larger share of members' reports name the people the field serves. In one network every member does, against 40% of the rest of its field.
How people are written about
How do charities in poorer areas write about people?
More, and more fully. The poorer the area, the more its charities' reports are about the people they serve, both by what they lack and by what they bring. Richer areas' charities write less about people at all.
How does the charity sector describe homeless, lonely and older people?
Mostly by what they lack. The sector's reports put words of vulnerability, hardship and crisis beside homeless people, lonely people, older people and people in food poverty more often than words of skill, work and potential.
Change and context
Which groups are charities naming more often?
Young people. The same charities name young people in their latest report 1.4 points more often than in the one before; special educational needs and loneliness are rising too, and no population is falling.
Where are migrant and refugee charities in England?
Where recent arrivals are. Places with more arrivals in 2017 to 2021 have more migrant and refugee charities per resident. Places with larger ethnic minority populations have more charities per resident, but no difference in council youth spending per young person.
Where do more charities name mental health?
Where more households have no car, and where large charities are denser.
Do counties have more charities per resident than other areas?
Yes. Counties have more charities per resident, and more youth charities per young person, than unitary and metropolitan areas; their councils' youth spending per young person does not differ.
What these are not
They are associations across 152 county and unitary areas and 71,857 charities, not causes. A thin area is one where a body’s listed places and members are few for the people counted there, not one where nobody is helped. Fragile is a reading of a charity’s latest return, not a judgement of it.
See it for your field or your area
Every project on the home page carries a page of what the records show from outside its field. For your own field, area or membership, book twenty minutes.
Who publishes this
Adrian Taylor runs Charity in a Box, after twenty years working in charities and public services. About Adrian.
Built from public information. Sources: the Charity Commission for England and Wales register and annual returns (OGL v3.0); Census 2021 (ONS, OGL v3.0); English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG, OGL v3.0); the Claimant Count (ONS).