Inclusion in the top 500 is determined by income. Not all corporations in the top 500 make a profit.
Some caution should be exercised when referencing profitability. The vast majority of the top 500 corporations are not-for-profit corporations so this report focuses largely on income. Profit or surplus cannot be taken as an accurate measure of the performance of a not-for-profit because the objective of such corporations is quite different. Their aim is not to generate profit or wealth but to use their resources to the maximum to further their non-profit purposes. The more income that a not-for-profit generates, the more resources it can devote to its non-profit purposes.
In this part of the report the terms ‘profit and loss’ include ‘surplus and deficit’ respectively for not-for-profit corporations.
Figure 13: Number of profit-making and loss-making corporations in the top 500, 2007–08 to 2015–16
In 2015–16 the percentage of corporations reporting a profit was 65 per cent. This is up from 60 per cent in 2014–15 (figure 13).
Figure 14: Average profit for profit-making corporations and average loss for loss-making corporations in the top 500, 2007–08 to 2015–16
For 2015–16 the value of the average loss and the value of the average profit made by the respective categories have both declined. That is, the average loss and the average profit moved closer to break-even (figure 14).
Figure 15: Total combined profit and loss for the top 500 corporations, 2007–08 to 2015–16
Figure 15 shows that the overall profitability of the top 500 corporations has fluctuated widely since 2007–08. It is not reflective of the steady growth pattern in total income over the same period (figure 4).