More than two thirds of Scottish charities are entirely volunteer run

Two thirds of charities in Scotland employ no paid staff and are run entirely by volunteers, including their trustees.

Just under a quarter of charities in Scotland employ between one and ten members of staff, meanwhile only one in 20 have between 11 and 50 employees.

The average number of paid staff in Scottish charities is 10.

In total charities in Scotland employ 213,000, which is just under one in ten workers in the country.

The figures have been revealed by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) in its latest sector overview report for July to September this year.

In contrast only a fifth of cross border charities do not have any paid staff, as they tend to be larger organisations, said the OSCR.

Its report found that 194 charities had been registered in the last quarter, however 282 were removed.

Meanwhile, the gross annual income of Scottish charities is £15.1bn and more than half have an income of under £25,000.

Just 4% of Scottish charities have an income over £1m which “shows that the charity sector is dominated by small and micro charities” in Scotland, said the OSCR.

It is estimated there are 184,000 charity trustees in Scotland, with charities having eight-strong boards on average.

More than half of charities are in the education sector, more than a third are involved in citizenship and community development, and just under a quarter focus on arts, heritage, culture or science.