The United States has 1-2 million NGOs, 70 percent of which are less than 30 years old.

Snapshots of NGO sector growth

• The United States has 1-2 million NGOs, 70 percent of which are less than 30 years old.

• 60,000 NGOs were created in France in 1990 alone, compared to 10,000-15,000 in the entire decade of the 1960s. Associations in Germany have grown at a comparably high rate.

• New Zealand's civic sector includes at least 36,000 incorporated groups, with perhaps 20 new groups formed each week.

• Hungary boasted 13,000 associations two years after the end of Communism, at least half of them formed in the preceding two years.

• By the mid-1990s, about 1 million NGOs were operating in India, 210,000 in Brazil, 96,000 in the Philippines, 27,000 in Chile, 20,000 in Egypt, and 11,000 in Thailand. Sources: Salamon 1994:111; Salamon and Anheier 1996:5; Robinson 1997:100; Runyon 1999:14; Silk 1999:16; Independent Sector 2001:3; UNDP 2002:5.