Benchmarking the socio-economic performance of the EU social economy
This Study ‘Benchmarking the socio-economic performance of the EU social economy’, commissioned by the European Commission and coordinated by Euricse in collaboration with Ciriec International and Spatial Foresight, aims to understand the weight of the social economy in the European context and its contribution to the creation of a sustainable, innovative and resilient environment.
The report offers both quantitative and qualitative data highlighting the importance of the social economy in the European Union, using information available at national level in 27 countries. The study examined over 4.3 million entities active in the social economy, including more than 246,000 social enterprises and over 11.5 million people working in this sector.
In Italy, the analysis of different Istat sources (ASIA – enterprises, ASIA – agriculture, Permanent Census of Non-profit Institutions) and administrative sources (such as RUNTS) made it possible to identify more than 406,000 entities falling within the perimeter of the social economy, employing more than 1.5 million workers, including more than 875,000 women, and involving more than 4.6 million volunteers.
The study also highlights the contribution of the social economy in traditional and emerging sectors, analysing also the impact of Covid-19 and the still unexpressed potential, influenced by regulatory differences between countries.
