How many different types of charities are there?

We're grateful to Guidestar.org for this breakdown which is featured in their current newsletter, under 'Your Charity Questions Answered'

There seem to be many different types of charitable purpose and so how are charities classified? The table below shows how many charities list themselves under each Charity Commission classification term. Charities may chose to list more than one of these terms to describe their purposes and some charities may choose to not list any.

Education/Training 76,242
General Charitable Purposes 41,709
Sport/recreation 28,628
Arts/culture 24,900
Relief of Poverty 24,482
Religious activities 23,795
Medical/Health/Sickness 21,727
Disability 18,830
Economic/Community development/Employment 16,964
Environment/Conservation/Heritage 16,495
Overseas aid/Famine relief 8,341
Accommodation/Housing 8,270
Animals 3,233

Acknowledgement www.guidestar.org.uk