Civil society organisations in the UK exist to support a wide range of beneficiary groups, including people from the UK and across the world, animals and the environment. This means that trying to accurately estimate how many people benefit is challenging, and virtually impossible. Many UK-based organisations have a global reach, whilst the breadth of needs and interests met by civil society organisations makes it difficult to not be a direct or indirect beneficiary of their work. The estimates in the table below should be read with this caveat in mind.