The INE is publishing today its first ever Social Economy Satellite Account, which reflects the economic and employment activity of cooperatives, mutual societies, foundations and associations that carry out economic activity, labour companies, insertion companies, special social initiative employment centres, fishermen's guilds, agricultural processing companies and unique entities created by specific regulations that are governed under the principles established in Article 4 of Law 5/2011 of 29 March on the Social Economy.
In this first edition, the period from 2019 to 2023 has been estimated, not only to show the current impact of the Social Economy on the economic structure of Spain, but also to reflect the performance of the Social Economy during the situation caused by COVID-19 and to show its subsequent evolution.
The turnover of entities in the Social Economy in the 2019-2023 period reflects a stable performance of around 11.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at current prices.
However, this percentage increased to 11.9% in 2020, which implicitly meant a better performance in current terms of this social facet as compared to the economy as a whole in the year of the onset of the pandemic.
Subsequently, the turnover of Social Economy entities has returned to the level of 11.1% of GDP in 2023.
Percentage
(P) Provisional data
The weight of Gross Value Added (GVA) produced directly by the Social Economy, measured through the supply of all entities in the business sphere - both financial and non-financial - and non-profit institutions, amounted to 54,424 million euros in 2023. This figure accounted for 4.0% of the total GVA of the economy.
In terms of employment, the Social Economy exceeded 1.2 million direct jobs in 2023. This accounted for 5.8% of total employment in the economy.
It is worth noting that this percentage rose to 6.5% in 2020, showing, therefore, less job destruction than that recorded in Spain as a whole during the pandemic.
(P) Provisional data
In terms of production, the Social Economy contributed 120,701 million euros to the Spanish economy in 2023. In intermediate consumption, the contribution was 66,277 million.
In terms of employment, the Social Economy directly employed around 1.28 million people in 2023.
If we analyse the impact of the Social Economy by institutional sector, the GVA of the Non-Financial Corporations and Households sectors accounted for 3.9% of the total GVA of the sectoral grouping in 2023.
This percentage was also 3.9% for Financial Corporations and 81.6% for Non-Profit Institutions Serving Households, a sector which largely includes the economy’s third sector entities.
In terms of distribution by activity branch, the greatest impact of the Social Economy was in Agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing, where 24.9% of total GVA was due to the Social Economy.
This was followed by Service activities, where the Social Economy accounted for 18.2% of its GVA.
The Satellite Account also measures the impact of volunteering by the domestic population over 16 years of age in the economy, distinguishing between formal volunteering - carried out in volunteer organisations - and community volunteering.
In 2023, formal volunteering reached 10.3% of the population in that age range, while community volunteering 5.4%.
The imputed economic estimate of formal volunteering (what it would be in the case of being paid), would be 1.0% of the total employee remuneration and 0.5% of the total GVA of the national economy.
The 2023 data are provisional and will be revised when next year's data are released. All the results of this operation are available at INEbase.
The Social Economy Satellite Account (SESA) is a synthesis statistic composed of the production and operating accounts, defined and estimated with the methodological principles of National Accounting, and consistent with the data for the data reference date. The perimeter of the Social Economy has been established in accordance with the Social Economy Act 5/2011 of 29 March on the date of this publication. A amendment thereof could lead to a revision of the Satellite Account.
In order to achieve the objectives set in terms of reflecting the reality of the social economy in the economic, labour and volunteer structure in Spain, a working group has been set up with major institutions; the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy, the International Centre for Research and Information on the Public, Social and Cooperative Economy (CIRIEC in its Spanish initials), the Spanish Social Economy Business Confederation (CEPES in its Spanish initials), the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, the ONCE Foundation and the Third Sector Platform.
The SESA is basically comprised of three types of elements:
Tables with the production and operating accounts, in which the production and cost structure of entities in the social economy is explained as a whole. Its analysis has included estimates by institutional sectors and also by branches of production according to CNAE 2009. It includes tables segregated by type of entity: Cooperatives, Mutual Societies and Friendly Societies, Singular Entities (ONCE, Red Cross and Cáritas), Associations, Foundations, other entities in the social economy, and commercial entities that are subsidiary to the social economy.
Tables of direct employment data for the social economy in the same terms of disaggregation as the economic accounts. Employment data may undergo adjustments due to the incorporation of new entities in future publications of the Statistics on Social Economy Entities registered with Social Security published by the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy.
Tables with the data on volunteering, by type, with their imputed economic valuation.
More information on the methodology and the standardised methodological report.
INE statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Good Practice for European Statistics. More information on Quality at INE and the Code of Best Practices.
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