Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) has published, for the first time, the Social Economy Satellite Account in Spain. This satellite account reflects the economic and employment activity of the social economy as a whole and of each of its components: cooperatives, employee-owned enterprises, mutual societies, work integration enterprises, special employment centres of social initiative, fishermen’s guilds, agricultural transformation enterprises, foundations, associations engaged in economic activity, and other specific entities, all in accordance with Spanish legislation.
The INE prepared the satellite account with the support of a working group composed of representatives from the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy, its General Service for Statistics and Socio-Labour Analysis, CIRIEC-Spain, the Spanish confederation of the social economy (CEPES), the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, Fundación ONCE and the Third Sector Platform.
This first edition covers the period from 2019 to 2023. It not only reflects the current impact of the social economy on the economic structure, but also captures its performance during the COVID-19 crisis and its subsequent evolution.
€54.4 billion in Gross Value Added
According to the main results of the satellite account, the Gross Value Added (GVA) of the social economy reached €54.424 billion in 2023, representing 4.0% of the national total. In terms of output, the social economy contributed €120.701 billion to the Spanish economy that year. Intermediate consumption amounted to €66.277 billion, while compensation of employees reached €35.737 billion.
In terms of employment, the social economy accounted for nearly 1.3 million direct jobs in 2023, representing 5.8% of total employment in the economy. This share rose to 6.5% in 2020, showing that during the worst year of the pandemic the social economy experienced a smaller decline in employment compared to the overall Spanish economy.
The Satellite Account also measures the impact of volunteering among the population aged over 16, distinguishing between formal volunteering—carried out within volunteer organisations—and informal neighbourhood support. In 2023, formal volunteering involved 10.3% of this population group, while informal volunteering accounted for 5.4%, representing a total of more than 6.4 million people. The estimated economic value of formal volunteering (if it was remunerated) would amount to 1.0% of total employee compensation and 0.5% of total GVA of the Spanish economy.
On the methodology and presentation of the Satellite Account
The Social Economy Satellite Account (SESA) is established as a complement to the core framework of the System of National Accounts (SNA), with the aim of providing a comprehensive and comparable picture of social economy enterprises and entities in Spain. The SESA is composed of production and income accounts defined and estimated according to national accounting methodological principles.
The published SESA includes three types of elements: tables of production and income accounts, which detail the production and cost structure of social economy entities as a whole and by type; tables of direct employment data for the social economy with the same level of detail; and tables on volunteering by type, including its economic valuation.
According to José Luis Monzón, director of CIRIEC-Spain and president of the CIRIECSTAT Statistical Portal, this satellite account “demonstrates the enormous importance of the social economy in Spain and also highlights its strong capacity to adapt to situations such as those experienced during the most severe phases of COVID-19, with significantly lower job losses than in the rest of the economy.”
