In order to generate a comprehensive understanding of a sector or a specific industry and to take planning action based on this, corresponding fundamental analysis work is required. In this context, sector and industry analyses and social planning serve to record and analyse the sector/industry on the basis of various key figures as well as to forecast future needs and derive recommendations for action. On the basis of the resulting findings, an evidence-based design of the sector or industry can finally be undertaken and the social planning of the federal states can be supported.

The nonprofit sector has increasingly attracted research attention in Austria and internationally in the 1990s. As part of the Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project at Johns Hopkins University, many countries have begun to measure the size of the sector in different subsectors/industries. The number of organizations, the number of paid and volunteer staff, and the amount of revenue and expenditures in NPOs have been key metrics through which researchers have attempted to measure the importance of the sector. Today, it is a declared goal to create separate satellite accounts for nonprofit organizations within the framework of the national accounts. These can be used, for example, to measure the monetary size or employment volume of the sector and to make its importance visible.

Comprehensive directives have already been drawn up for this purpose. In some countries (e.g. Australia, Canada), this is already being implemented. In Austria, negotiations are underway with the relevant ministries in this regard.

Selected examples:

Facts and figures on the nonprofit sector
Handbook of Nonprofit Organization: Structures and Management (2022)
ArtWorks: Artistic Services in the Third Sector - Baseline: Third Sector in Austria (2003).

In addition to the nonprofit sector as a whole, our research deals with other (sub-) sectors, such as the social sector. This is not limited to NPOs, but also includes providers of services from the public sector or for-profit companies.

Sector analyses are often the starting point for further activities, such as those we conducted in the INDEED project for the dementia-related health sector in the participating countries. Here, the sector analysis served to record the respective initial situation as well as to reveal region-specific differences with the aim of utilizing existing potentials and improving dementia care.

Selected examples:

Evaluation of services ("products") and related expenditures of the social department of the province of Upper Austria
Interreg Danube Transnational Programme: Innovation for Dementia in the Danube Region (INDEED)

Within the framework of social planning, the demand side is also increasingly coming to the fore. The aim of the sector analysis within the framework of social planning is to ascertain the demand and thus provide a basis for the provision of quality service offers.

Selected examples:

Determining the number of people with physical and sensory disabilities in Lower Austria and their support needs
Demand plan for facilities for people with intellectual disabilities in Lower Austria
Needs plan for determining the number of people with disabilities in Burgenland