The new edition of the Social Economy Satellite Account was published on 31 July by INE and for the first time with data for two years - 2019 and 2020. The weight of Social Economy GVA in the national economy increased from 3% to 3.2%, with the number of organisations reaching 73,851 in 2020, an increase of 2.3% compared to 2016, the reference year of the previous edition of the Account, confirming the counter-cyclical behaviour of this area of the economy. In terms of GVA and employment, the Health area is the most relevant, with 25.5% of GVA and 33.2% of paid employment, followed closely by Social Services, with 24.9% of GVA and 29.9% of paid employment. The area of Culture, Communication and Recreation Activities, despite representing 45% in the number of entities, only weighs 3.7% in GVA and 4.9% in paid employment, a very low weight as has been reported in previous accounts. The typical and not internationally common characteristic of the preponderance of Health and Social in the Social Economy is maintained in Portugal, with an area of civic intervention that is not very representative.
It is very interesting to see for the first time an analysis of the longevity of organisations inspired by the scale developed for the study of the Social Impact of Portuguese Foundations! The misericórdias and mutualist associations stand out in terms of maturity, and the associations with altruistic purposes as the youngest.
In the seven European countries with available information, Portugal ranks third in terms of the weight of the social economy in GVA, after Italy and Belgium. In terms of employment, with information available for the whole EU, Portugal occupies an intermediate position.
Update (7th sep23): see also CASES document based on the Satellite Account
