Social and environmental problems are ubiquitous around the world. Hence, politicians, business leaders and members of society call for endeavours that focus on social and environmental objectives. Some of these are pursued by governments and by semi-public organisations. However, there is no clear boundary concerning which social and environmental problems should be the responsibility of governments and which problems may, at least partly, be left open for the market for private and other non-governmental organisations. Indeed, there are many differences across countries in terms of how initiatives are directed at solving social or ecological problems. This GEM study reports findings on the prevalence of social entrepreneurship around the world.