CICOPA launches its first comprehensive analysis on industrial and service cooperatives since 2017. Based on data from members worldwide, the report highlights the scale, typology, employment, and inclusion characteristics of cooperatives in industry and services.
The report marks CICOPA’s return to a comprehensive analysis of its network, following the last data collection published in 2017. Based on quantitative and secondary data gathered between 2022 and 2023, this report provides an updated picture of the scale, composition and recent trends of industrial and service cooperatives affiliated with CICOPA’s members.
The CICOPA network represents an estimate of 52,767 cooperatives, employing over 2.1 million workers. Most of these cooperatives (90%) are small and medium-sized enterprises, confirming their embeddedness in local economies and 76% of workers are also members of their cooperative, meaning they are co-owners and directly involved in governance and strategic decision-making.
Most of the cooperatives represented in the CICOPA network are worker cooperatives (74%), meaning the cooperative is democratically managed and owned by the workers, alongside social cooperatives (24%), whose aim is to provide good and services of general interest, and a smaller but growing number of cooperatives of self-employed producers.
Sectoral data confirm that most cooperatives operate in services (69%), followed by industry (20%) and construction (9%), with activities spanning manufacturing, transport, professional services, health, education, trade and other service-related fields. Compared with the previous report, the data show an increased weight of services and a relative decline in industry and construction, echoing trends already observed in 2017.
Beyond structural and economic indicators, the publication sheds light on inclusion, equity and job quality, drawing on available data related to people with disabilities, women and young workers. In some countries, people with disabilities represent up to one third of the cooperative workforce. Women make up more than half of workers in several national contexts, and in many cases are also members, actively participating in cooperative governance. Available data on youth employment highlights both existing challenges and notable exceptions, where young people represent a very high share of worker-members.
Finally, the report explores recent economic and employment trends. Despite the difficult socio-economic context of 2022–2023, most CICOPA members report stable or improved economic and employment situations and expect stability to continue.
-ICA
