The popularity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives among private-sector employers remains as strong as ever, it has been suggested.

Despite businesses being forced to deal with the challenging economic climate, the number of them registering first-time CSR reports so far this financial year stands at 456.

According to the CorporateRegister.com, which compiles the statistics, this total is likely to reach around 700 by the end of March 2010, thereby representing an increase on the 623 first-time reports registered in 2008.

The figures also show that, of these 456 reports, 134 have come from businesses based in Continental Europe, 59 from the UK and 93 from US-based enterprises.

Welcoming the findings, the site's managing director Paul Scott told IR Magazine: "The received wisdom among hard-nosed businessmen is that corporate responsibility is something fuzzy and wooly and is an optional extra above the task of running the business.

"This received wisdom must make way for the facts, illustrated by the statistics."

At the end of November, both the John Lewis Partnership in the UK and Australia's Westpac Banking Corporation published their annual sustainability reports.