Some economic models work on many levels. They create jobs, hold steady in a crisis, and provide essential care for people. The social economy is one of them. And for the first time in Spain, we now have data to prove it.
A hidden giant, finally visible
In February 2026, Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) published its first statistics on the contribution of cooperatives, mutual societies, foundations, labour companies, and social integration enterprises to the Spanish economy.
The figures speak for themselves: the social economy generated €54.4 billion in gross value added in 2023, equivalent to 4% of national GVA. Its turnover amounts to 11.1% of GDP. It supports more than 1.27 million direct jobs – 5.8% of total employment in the wider economy.
The formal volunteering that sustains these organisations would be worth 0.5% of national GVA if paid at market rates. More than 6.4 million people took part in formal or neighbourhood volunteering activities in 2023.
A policy framework built to last
Data matter, but alone, it does not transform economies. What sets Spain apart is the policy architecture it has built around the social economy in recent years – one that treats this model not as just another sectoral policy, but as a fundamentally different and better way of doing business.
A new Ministry of Labour and Social Economy was established in 2020, followed by a dedicated State Secretariat for the Social Economy in 2023, giving the sector genuine institutional weight. That structure enabled a level of cross-government coordination that would otherwise have been impossible.
The clearest expression of that coordination is Spain’s Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) on Social Economy and Care – which mobilised over €2.5 billion across ten ministries and supported nearly 4,500 organisations, with measurable results in quality job creation, gender equality, local innovation, and the professionalisation of care services.
The new Comprehensive Law for the Promotion of the Social Economy (LIES, Law 1/2026 of 8 April) provides the legal backbone: clarifying the boundaries of the social economy ecosystem, updating its operating rules, and tying the sector’s activity to broader public interest goals – from labour inclusion to territorial cohesion and ecological transition.
Underpinning it all is the Spanish Social Economy Strategy 2023–2027, a consensus document built with the entire ecosystem, structured around five strategic priorities: quality employment, collective entrepreneurship, combating rural depopulation, environmental sustainability, and alignment with the 2030 Agenda.
Why the social economy is one of the strongest answers to the big challenges
What makes the Spanish model distinctive is its explicit positioning of the social economy as a response to the most pressing structural challenges of our time.
It is resilient: cooperatives and labour companies have demonstrated superior resilience in downturns. For example, at the height of the pandemic in 2020, their share of employment rose to 6.5%, showing that the social economy shed proportionally fewer jobs than the rest of the Spanish economy. Their democratic ownership structures and profit-reinvestment models also make them far less likely to relocate, downsize, or financialise at the expense of local communities.
It supports the vulnerable: the PERTE explicitly linked the expansion of the social economy to the professionalisation of services for elderly people, people with disabilities, and young children – precisely the services that conventional market actors systematically underserve.
It reaches underserved communities: cooperatives and social enterprises are disproportionately present in rural and depopulated areas where private investment rarely reaches. In many of these territories, the social economy is not an alternative to the market. It is the market.
Global leadership
Spain has not built its social economy in isolation. Alongside the domestic reforms, the government has driven the international agenda: supporting the OECD Recommendation on the Social and Solidarity Economy (2022), the ILO Resolution on Decent Work and the SSE (2022), the EU Council Recommendation (2023), and two UN General Assembly resolutions (2023 and 2024), both co-sponsored by Spain and adopted unanimously.
Spain also chairs the follow-up committee of the Luxembourg Declaration, which brings together the most committed European countries on the social economy, and co-led the launch of the Ibero-American Social and Solidarity Economy Network (RIFESS) in January 2024. These are not symbolic gestures: they are the building blocks of a multilateral framework capable of protecting and spreading this model.
A call to action for policymakers
The Spanish experience shows that the social economy flourishes when governments invest simultaneously in three areas: institutional recognition, a coherent legal framework, and cross-cutting public expenditure. None of the three is enough on its own.
The publication of INE’s new statistics marks a turning point. For the first time, the case for investing in the social economy can rest on rigorous, internationally comparable national accounts data. Countries that do not yet have their own measurement tool should develop one now: the methodological path is clear, and Spain is ready to share it.
Policymakers looking to improve competitiveness, address care deficits, reduce territorial inequalities, or meet climate commitments will find in the social economy a proven and scalable sector. The evidence from Spain is now irrefutable. The question is no longer whether the social economy works. The question is whether governments have the ambition to put it to work.
To read more, see The Social Economy in Europe
Amparo Merino is a Full Professor (Catedrática) of Labour Law and Social Security, attached to the Department of Labour Law and Social Work at the University of Castilla-La Mancha. Since 2023, she has served as Secretary of State for Social Economy at the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy.