Co-operatives Internationally
“The co-operative movement is one of the largest organised segments of civil society, and plays a crucial role across a wide spectrum of human aspiration and need. Co-operatives provide vital health, housing and banking services; they promote education and gender equality; they protect the environment and workers rights. Through these and a range of other activities, they help people in more than a hundred countries better their lives and those of their communities.”
Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations.
Co-operatives have proved to be highly successful; the movement comprises over 800 million people around the world.
In 1994 the United Nations estimated that the livelihoods of nearly 3 billion people - half the world's population - were made secure by co-operative enterprise. They can be found in most industrial and community sectors: health and social care, childcare, schools, sports, tourism, utilities (electricity, water, gas) and transport.
- There are over 800 million co-operative members worldwide.
- Over 100 million people work in co-ops - 20% more than in multinational enterprises.
- In France, 700,000 people work in 21,000 co-ops.
- In Italy 1 million people work in 70,400 co-ops.
- In Canada, over 160,000 are employed by co-ops and credit unions.
- In the USA, 4 out of 10 individuals is a member of a co-op; 30% of US farmers' products are marketed through 3,400 farmer-owned co-operatives; in 2003 the top 100 US co-ops had combined revenues of $117 billion.
- The global 300 top Co-operatives and Mutuals share a turnover of $1,000 billion (USD). In comparison, Canada, the ninth economy in the world, has a GDP of $979 billion (USD)
More info
International Co-operative Alliance