The survey is a national initiative. It responds directly to one of the key recommendations of the CNIS report « Knowledge of associations » published in December 2010. The medium-term opinion of the CNIS for the period 2014-2018 recommended that the survey on associations be carried out regularly (opinion no. 2 of the Companies and Market Strategies Commission), specified by the opinion resulting from the commission's meeting of 30 March 2016, which recommends a five-yearly rhythm. The same committee's opinion no. 9 for the 2019-2023 period, devoted to knowledge of the social economy, confirmed the interest in this survey, an interest renewed for the 2024-2028 period by this committee (opinion no. 7 ‘Advancing knowledge of the social economy’).

The 2025 survey is therefore directly in line with this schedule.

In accordance with the recommendations of the CNIS report, one of the objectives of the Associations survey is also to contribute to the construction of the national accounts, starting with the NPISH (non-profit institutions serving households) account.

The construction of the 2020-based national accounts provided an opportunity to incorporate the results of the previous survey, and the value added of non-profit institutions serving households (NPISHs, S15 account) was thus revised upwards significantly. The mobilisation of the survey also made it possible to complete the scope of the institutional sector of non-financial businesses (S11 account).

The results of the Associations survey are of interest to several ministerial statistical services (SSM), the Mdess (Ministry of Youth and Sports), the Deps (Ministry of Culture), the Dares (Ministry of Labor) and the Drees (Ministry of Health).

Organized associations, researchers and elected officials are also users of these results.