Data Report
The US Nonprofit Sector
1,933,892 tax-exempt organizations analyzed from the IRS Business Master File. State rankings, sector breakdowns, revenue distribution, and revocation trends.
Total Organizations
1,933,892
Tax-exempt, IRS BMF
Total Revenue
$4.1T
Annual reported revenue
Total Assets
$10.5T
Aggregate asset base
Revocations
1,203,394
Lost tax-exempt status
Why This Matters
1.93 million tax-exempt organizations hold $10.5 trillion in assets and generate $4.1 trillion in revenue annually. The nonprofit sector is a massive part of the US economy that is often overlooked in standard business analysis. Understanding where organizations concentrate, which sectors dominate revenue, and how many have lost their tax-exempt status provides essential context for funders, policymakers, researchers, and anyone selling services to nonprofits.
Top 20 States by Nonprofit Count
California leads with 199,740 organizations — 10.3% of the national total
Nonprofit Sectors (NTEE Classification)
Religion-related (199,570) and Education (181,163) are the two largest classified sectors
Note: 589,266 organizations have no NTEE classification on file. Top 8 of 25 classified sectors shown.
Revenue Distribution
70.9% of organizations report under $50K in annual income
< $50K
70.9%
$50K-$500K
17.1%
$500K-$5M
8.7%
$5M-$50M
2.7%
$50M+
0.6%
All 25 NTEE Sectors + Deep Dives
Revenue and asset totals for every sector
All 25 sectors with revenue, assets, and state-level breakdowns in the full report
Nonprofits Per 100K Residents
DC leads at 2,038 nonprofits per 100K residents
Full per-capita ranking for all 50 states + DC in the report
Federal Grant Funding by State (FY2024)
California received $175B in federal grants — source: USASpending.gov
Full federal funding breakdown for all states in the report
Revocations by Year (2010-2025)
1,203,394 organizations lost tax-exempt status. 2010 saw 377K revocations — the Pension Protection Act cliff.
Full revocation timeline with state-by-state breakdown in the report
When Were Today's Nonprofits Founded?
517,572 currently active organizations received IRS recognition in the 2020s
Formation decade analysis with sector and state breakdowns in the report
The Bottom Line
The nonprofit sector is a $4.1 trillion part of the economy that operates almost invisibly. A handful of large healthcare and education nonprofits generate most of the revenue, while the vast majority of the 1.93 million organizations are small, local, and volunteer-run.
The 1.2 million revocations since 2010 do not indicate sector failure. They mostly reflect a regulatory cleanup of organizations that existed on paper only. For anyone working in or with nonprofits, the key insight is scale: this sector is enormous, highly concentrated at the top, and largely invisible at the bottom.
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Per-capita rankings for all 51 jurisdictions, full NTEE sector deep dives, federal funding by state, revocation trends, and formation analysis. Free — enter your email for instant PDF access.
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Sources: IRS Business Master File (BMF) — all 51 state/territory files downloaded from irs.gov. IRS Tax Exempt Organization revocation list from epostcard.tax.gov. Federal grant funding from USASpending.gov API (FY2024). Population data from 2024 US Census estimates.
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