Benchmarking the socio-economic performance of the EU social economy : improving the socio-economic knowledge of the proximity and social economy ecosystem

This report summarises the findings of the project 'Benchmarking the socio-economic performance of the EU social economy'. Across the 27 Member States, the social economy includes more than 4.3 million entities1. Social economy entities are mainly cooperatives, mutual benefit societies, associations and foundations. Within these figures, there are more than 246 000 social enterprises, of which almost 43 000 are ex lege and over 203 000 are de facto social enterprises2. At least 11.5 million people3 - 6.3% of the employed population in the EU - are occupied in the social economy. More than 6.2 million people (54%) are employed in associations and 3.3 million (29%) in cooperatives. Social enterprises employ at least 3.9 million people. At least 3.3 million people are employed in the health and social care sector, a further 702 000 in education and 622 000 in arts, culture and entertainment. Even if data on female employment is not always available, the share of female employment can be expected to be rather high. In Belgium and Portugal, women account for more than 70% of employment in the social economy, while in France, Poland and Italy the shares are 66%, 60% and 46%, respectively. The revenues generated by the social economy accounted at least for a turnover of EUR 912 billion in 2021. France, Italy, Spain and Finland account for the largest cooperative sectors in terms of turnover, predominantly driven by agricultural, consumer and worker cooperatives. France and Germany register the highest turnover for associations, foundations and mutuals. The social economy plays an important role in other industrial ecosystems. Its contribution to the health ecosystem is significant. It is also well positioned in the agri-food, retail and energy-renewables ecosystems, while it is emerging in the cultural and creative industries and in the tourism ecosystem. The capacity of the social economy to influence policies is very diverse, ranging from almost insignificant in some ecosystems (e.g. tourism) to extremely relevant (e.g. health, energy-renewables).