A harmonised, enriched dataset of active charities registered across England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, annotated with cause classifications and financial indicators.
@dataset{danahouse2026,
title = {Dana House Open Data: UK Charity Register, Enriched},
author = {{Dana House}},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Dana House},
url = {https://danahouse.co.uk/academic},
license = {CC-BY-4.0}
}No DOI is assigned yet. Cite the URL above. A DOI will be added here when the dataset is deposited.
This dataset harmonises the public charity registers maintained by the Charity Commission for England and Wales (CCEW), the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI). Records are linked across registries using entity resolution, augmented with website evidence where available, and annotated with cause classifications from a 115-cause taxonomy.
The dataset is intended for researchers studying civil society, third-sector economics, philanthropic allocation, and charitable organisational behaviour in the UK context.
Population: Active charities across all three UK charity registers as of the dataset snapshot date. This snapshot covers approximately 203,000+ organisations in the scored register.
Geographic scope: United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland).
Time range: Charities registered from circa 1850 to snapshot date. Registration dates are populated where available from source registers.
The schema includes cause classifications. As of 5 May 2026, 95.6% of charities had a cause classification, and no record was still awaiting review. The classification_quality_band field allows researchers to filter by confidence level. See the Limitations section for guidance on appropriate use by band.
| Field | Type | Nullable | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| charity_id | integer | no | Internal unique identifier, stable across releases. |
| charity_number | text | no | Official registration number as issued by the registering body. |
| name | text | no | Registered charity name at time of snapshot. |
| jurisdiction | text | no | Registering body. Values: ccew, oscr, ccni. |
| registration_date | date | yes | Date of registration with the relevant charity regulator. |
| removal_date | date | yes | Date of removal from the register. Null for currently active charities. |
| status | text | yes | Current registry status as reported by the source register. |
| income_band | text | yes | Financial size band: micro, small, medium, large, major. Null if income unavailable. |
| latest_income | numeric | yes | Most recent annual income in GBP. Null if not filed or not extractable. |
| latest_spending | numeric | yes | Most recent annual spending in GBP. Null if not filed or not extractable. |
| primary_cause | text | yes | Primary cause from the 115-cause taxonomy. Null for 4.4% of charities that could not be classified. See classification_quality_band. |
| classification_quality_band | text | yes | Confidence band: high (15.4%), medium (49.9%), low (34.7%), null for unclassified. See Limitations before using low-band records. |
| website | text | yes | Registered or discovered website URL. Null for charities with no identified web presence. |
| legal_form | text | yes | Legal form as recorded by the regulator (e.g. charitable company, CIO, unincorporated association). |
| company_number | text | yes | Companies House number, where the charity is also registered as a company. |
| record_readiness_band | text | no | Pipeline quality gate: premium, production, or production_limited. |
This dataset is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (SPDX: CC-BY-4.0).
You are free to share and adapt the material for any purpose, including commercial use, provided you give appropriate credit. Attribution should reference the dataset using the citation format above.
Derivative datasets must carry the same attribution notice. The source registers (CCEW, OSCR, CCNI) remain subject to their own Open Government Licence terms, which are compatible with CC BY 4.0.
The first release has not been published. Each published release is numbered. Once a release is deposited it keeps its own DOI, and a later release does not replace it. Each release records what changed since the previous one.
The first release has not been published. When it is, each file will be listed here with its format, size and checksum, and the same files will be deposited with Zenodo.
Each release of this dataset is deposited to Zenodo, a CERN-operated open-access repository, and assigned a permanent DOI. The Zenodo record will be linked here once the first release is deposited.
Using the DOI in citations ensures your reference remains stable and resolvable even if the dataset URL changes. The Zenodo record also carries archival metadata in DataCite schema, which is indexed by DataCite, OpenAIRE, and Google Dataset Search.
Full detail on how the dataset is constructed, validated, and released is available on the How it works page. That page documents the source stack, record matching approach, classification system, quality gates, and known blanks.
Researchers with questions about the dataset, or who would like to be notified of new releases, can email contact@danahouse.co.uk.