Advancing cooperative statistics: ILO unveils new information guide and insights from country pilots

GENEVA (ILO News) – The ILO has published two new publications that advance the measurement of cooperatives worldwide: Measuring Cooperatives (Second edition) and Implementing the ILO Guidelines Concerning Statistics of Cooperatives: Insights from five countries. Both publications are based on pilot studies carried out in Costa Rica, Italy, the Republic of Korea, Türkiye and the United Republic of Tanzania, with support from the Government of the Republic of Korea. Currently available in English, both titles will soon be published also in French and Spanish.

Practical guidance for cooperative statistics

Measuring Cooperative (Second Edition) is a practical tool that translates the ILO Guidelines concerning statistics of cooperatives—adopted in 2018 as the first international statistical standard on cooperatives—into concrete steps for countries. It offers step-by-step advice for national statistical offices, government agencies, ILO social partners, cooperative stakeholders, and researchers on gathering and analysing cooperative statistics in a consistent way. It covers key concepts and definitions, including cooperative types, statistical units, and work in and around cooperatives, and shows how to collect, tabulate, and analyse comparable data on membership, employment, and economic contributions. Updated with lessons from five pilot countries, it also encourages testing of questionnaire modules, integration with business and household surveys, and advances work on measuring cooperatives’ economic, social, and environmental contributions. It further highlights that stronger statistics can help better understand and promote the role of cooperatives in advancing decent work and sustainable development.

Country insights from five pilot studies

As demand grows for reliable, comparable evidence on cooperatives’ contribution to decent work and sustainable development, Implementing the ILO Guidelines concerning statistics of cooperatives: Insights from five countries demonstrates how countries applied the ILO Guidelines concerning statistics of cooperatives in practice. Drawing on five pilot studies, it presents condensed national experiences that highlight both successes and challenges, identify good practices and common issues, and offer practical recommendations for improving cooperative statistics. The compendium distils lessons on concepts and definitions, identifying cooperative types, integrating cooperatives into business registers and surveys, and combining administrative sources with special-purpose collections. Designed as a concise, actionable resource for national statistical offices, line ministries and the cooperative movement, it underscores the importance of integrating cooperatives into official statistics.

Supporting harmonized cooperative data and the way forward

Both publications were produced as part of an ILO initiative to advance cooperative and social and solidarity economy statistics. A core goal of this work is to ensure that statistics on cooperatives and the broader SSE around the world become more reliable, coherent and internationally comparable.

The findings also lay the groundwork for the development of a comprehensive statistical manual on cooperatives and guidelines on SSE statistics, expected to be presented at the 22nd International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) in 2028. Through this work, the ILO and its constituents and partners seek to ensure that the contributions of cooperatives and other SSE entities are fully recognized in global statistics systems.