This report assesses the socioeconomic weight of the ‘Proximity and Social Economy’ ecosystem and its contribution to a sustainable, innovative and resilient economy and society. The research pursued two interconnected aims: to represent the social economy of today based on current data as well as to identify methodological and operational tools to improve this representation. 

For this project, the social economy covers four types of entities, or ‘families’: 

1. cooperatives, 
2. mutual benefit societies, 
3. associations (including charities), and
4. foundations.

There are social economy organisations in all European (EU) countries, though some operate outside the radar. What changes across EU Member States is how much such entities are acknowledged by policymakers, the general public and grassroots organisations and recognise themselves as part of the social economy. 

Factors explaining the limited visibility of the social economy and underestimates of its contribution include a poor understanding of the diverse roles played by the organisations and the lack of high quality, comparable data and statistical analyses. Currently, only a few Member States have national statistics specifically measuring the social economy, including different types of social economy organisations, employment, the number of volunteers and the value added.

Key findings

• Across the 27 Member States of the European Union, the social economy includes more than 4.3 million entities. 
• At least 11.5 million people 3 – 6.3% of the employed population in the EU – are occupied in the social economy. 
• The revenues generated by the social economy accounted at least for a turnover of EUR 912 billion in 2021.
• 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).