Where these figures come from.

Language

The Global Majority — people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage or indigenous, approximately 85 per cent of the world's population
The term was coined in 2003 by Rosemary Campbell-Stephens MBE, out of her leadership work on the London Challenge. See her Educational Leadership and the Global Majority: Decolonising Narratives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).
Source: Rosemary Campbell-Stephens · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: The Cooperative Economy

The 85 per cent is part of Campbell-Stephens' own definition of the term and is cited to her, not offered as an independent demographic measurement.

Africa

South African stokvels collect around R50 billion in savings a year
National Stokvel Association of South Africa (NASASA) — 810,000+ stokvels, 11.4 million members, R45–50bn annually.
Source: NASASA · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Senegal's mutuelles de santé cover communities no commercial insurer will touch
Mutual health organisations are the basis of Senegal's Couverture Maladie Universelle, introduced 2013; roughly 380 community schemes. Members contribute 3,500 CFA a year, matched by government.
Source: National survey, Senegal · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Village savings groups repay above 97 per cent of loans
CARE International — 99% of all VSLA loans have been repaid in full over more than 30 years. This is CARE's global VSLA figure.
Source: CARE International · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Explore

Malawi's village savings groups return about 60 per cent a year on member savings
VSLA savings earn 4–5% per month, paid out at an annual share-out timed before the planting season.
Source: Innovations for Poverty Action · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Ethiopia's 92,755 cooperatives have 21 million members and support nearly two million jobs
Federal Cooperative Agency of Ethiopia, 2021 — 92,755 cooperatives, 21,043,370 members, 1,987,379 jobs created, and 21,328 primary SACCOs.
Source: ICA country data · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Kenya's 25,050 cooperatives serve 14 million members
International Cooperative Alliance country data. Separately, the regulator SASRA reports 357 regulated SACCOs with 7.39 million members for 2024.
Source: ICA country data · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

62 small-scale fishing cooperatives won 15-year rights for 3,850 South African fishers
Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, 2023 — the first allocation of small-scale fishing rights in the Western Cape, and the final province to receive them. Over 33% of declared fishers are women.
Source: South African DFFE · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Susu savings collection has been practised in Africa for over three centuries
Roughly 4,000 active susu collectors work in Ghana today, each serving 200–850 clients a day. The practice reached Ghana from Nigeria in the early twentieth century.
Source: Susu collectors · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Coffee earns Burundi between a third and two-thirds of its export income
600,000–800,000 families grow coffee; 60–80% of the harvest is processed at washing stations, organised primarily through farmer cooperatives.
Source: Burundi coffee sector · read 31 August 2026
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More than 30 million Nigerians belong to a cooperative society
Across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Source: Nairametrics · read 31 August 2026
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Uganda's registered cooperatives doubled in a decade — 21,346 societies with 5.6 million members
Uganda Cooperative Alliance / national registry, February 2020, up from 10,746 societies in January 2011.
Source: ICA country data · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Zambia has 9,498 registered cooperatives with more than 1.5 million members
Department of Cooperative Societies, 2019 — 1,578,340 members, the majority agricultural.
Source: ICA country data · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

The Democratic Republic of Congo has 80 savings and credit cooperatives regulated by its central bank
Banque Centrale du Congo. Kinshasa accounts for roughly a fifth of the country's microfinance institutions.
Source: ICA country data · read 31 August 2026
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Egypt's agricultural cooperatives have around 4 million members across more than 5,400 societies
Central Agricultural Cooperative Union of Egypt.
Source: ICA country data · read 31 August 2026
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Asia and the Pacific

AMUL is owned by 3.6 million dairy farmers
Amul / GCMMF — "36 lakh members" across 18 member unions and some 18,600 villages in Gujarat.
Source: Amul · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: The Cooperative Economy · Home · Press

Grameen Bank: 10.56 million borrowers, 97 per cent women, 98 per cent repayment
Grameen Bank, April 2024.
Source: Nobel Prize / Grameen Bank · read 31 August 2026
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Tamil Nadu's women's self-help group movement reaches nearly 7 million women
Mahalir Thittam and the Tamil Nadu State Rural Livelihoods Mission — approximately 6,991,000 women members.
Source: Tamil Nadu State Rural Livelihoods Mission · read 31 August 2026
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Malaysia's 15,809 cooperatives hold RM165.8 billion in assets for 7.02 million members
ANGKASA, the Malaysian National Cooperative Movement, as at 31 December 2023.
Source: ICA Malaysia snapshot · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Balinese subak has managed irrigation cooperatively for a thousand years
Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2012. The cooperative water-management system of canals and weirs dates to the 9th century.
Source: UNESCO World Heritage · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Taiwan's farmers' associations have provided cooperative credit since 1900
Farmers' associations established 1900; the Central Bank of the Republic of China still lists their credit departments as financial institutions.
Source: Central Bank of the Republic of China · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Afghan saffron is graded the world's finest
International Taste Institute — ranked best in the world for nine consecutive years. Afghanistan is the second-largest producer; Herat grows roughly 90% of it.
Source: International Taste Institute ranking · read 31 August 2026
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CARD began in 1986 with fifteen rural development workers and a vision of a bank owned by landless women
CARD Inc. was organised on 10 December 1986 by Dr Jaime Aristotle B. Alip with fourteen colleagues, to serve landless rural women in Laguna. CARD Bank now serves more than 900,000 clients through 55 branches.
Source: Card Bank · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: The Cooperative Economy · Home · Press

Papua New Guinea's MUPA Cocoa Cooperative pays its 240 farmer members 21% more for wet beans
MUPA Cocoa Cooperative Ltd, East Sepik Province, through its partnership with Queen Emma Chocolate Company.
Source: ReliefWeb · read 31 August 2026
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Maharashtra produces nearly 40% of India's sugar, most of it through cooperatives owned by the cane growers
Maharashtra's sugar industry; the majority of its mills are cooperatives owned by sugarcane growers. Asia's first cooperative sugar factory opened at Pravaranagar in 1950.
Source: Cooperative sugar factories in Maharashtra · read 31 August 2026
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The Philippines: 13.6 million cooperative members and ₱813.8 billion in cooperative assets
Cooperative Development Authority, 2024.
Source: Cooperative Development Authority · read 31 August 2026
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Nepal has 34,737 primary cooperatives with around 6 million members
60,517 people are directly employed. NEFSCUN, the savings and credit federation, reaches 3.7 million people across 76 districts.
Source: NEFSCUN · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Thailand has 6,092 cooperatives with 11 million members
Cooperative Promotion Department. Savings and credit cooperatives alone number 1,364, with 3.44 million members and ฿3.14 trillion in assets.
Source: Cooperative Promotion Department · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Japan's cooperatives have 65 million members — around half the population
Japan Co-operative Alliance / ICA. Roughly 40,716 cooperatives, present in over 34,000 locations.
Source: Japan Co-operative Alliance · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

South Korea's 2012 Framework Act on Cooperatives produced 8,289 new cooperatives in five years
There are now 22,610 (February 2023). The Act cut the minimum membership to five people.
Source: ICA country data · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: The Cooperative Economy

NTUC FairPrice, founded in 1973, is Singapore's largest supermarket chain — and a cooperative of the labour movement
More than 100 supermarkets and over 160 Cheers convenience stores. Singapore has roughly 70–85 registered cooperatives.
Source: Singapore Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Turkey's agricultural credit cooperatives are the country's largest farmer organisation
Tarım Kredi Kooperatifleri — 1,617 local cooperatives owned by around 800,000 farming members, under 17 regional unions.
Source: The Agricultural Credit Cooperatives of Turkey · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

The Americas

Mexican credit unions serve more than 8 million members
Cooperative savings and credit societies (SOCAP) reach 8.5 million+ families across 155+ institutions supervised by the CNBV.
Source: Caja Popular Mexicana · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Explore · Home · Press

Amazon extractive reserves protect more than 12 million hectares
At least 48 extractive reserves. The Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve alone covers 931,537 hectares, created by decree in March 1990.
Source: Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: The Cooperative Economy · Home · Press

SICOOB won the World Council of Credit Unions Digital Growth Award in 2024
WOCCU, 22 July 2024, awarded jointly with PUSKOPCUINA (Indonesia), for Sipag 2.0 — affordable electronic payments for rural micro-businesses.
Source: World Council of Credit Unions · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

REI is a consumer cooperative owned by 25 million members — no shareholders, $3.53 billion in sales
REI Co-op 2024 financials. REI is owned by its members, not its employees; a one-time membership fee makes each member a co-owner with voting rights.
Source: REI Co-op 2024 impact report and financials · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Argentina's worker-recovered enterprises: 311 companies run by more than 13,000 workers
Latest survey of empresas recuperadas, the movement that emerged from Argentina's 2001–02 collapse.
Source: Institute of Development Studies · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Colombia's cooperatives contribute about 1.7% of GDP and around 3% of employment
Research on Confecoop data. The 3% figure includes Associated Work Cooperatives.
Source: ICA country data · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Peru is the world's largest exporter of organic coffee and the leading exporter of Fairtrade coffee
Over 90% of Peruvian coffee is grown by smallholders on plots under five hectares; roughly 90,000 hectares are certified organic. In the 1970s cooperatives handled up to 80% of coffee exports.
Source: World Coffee Research · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Canada's credit unions and Desjardins together hold about $766 billion in assets for 10.9 million members
Credit unions outside Quebec hold ~$301bn (231 institutions, 5.9m members); Desjardins Group held $464.7bn at 30 September 2024, serving almost 5 million members.
Source: Canadian Credit Union Association · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Canada came through the 2008 crisis with no bank failures and no bailouts
Unlike the United States, Canada had no bank failures, no bailouts, and a milder recession.
Source: NBER · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Coopeuch is Latin America's largest credit union — over a million members across all 346 communes of Chile
Founded 1967 by employees of the Universidad de Chile.
Source: CIBP · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Haiti's caisses populaires: 56 credit unions across all ten departments, serving more than a million members
ANACAPH, the national association, founded 21 June 1998.
Source: ANACAPH · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Ecuador's savings and credit cooperatives put 54% of their service points in rural areas
Around 37% are in areas of high poverty, and roughly one in six institutions works with indigenous communities.
Source: Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Venezuela has over 19,500 registered communal councils
Given legal status by the Law of Communal Councils, April 2006. Each covers roughly 200 to 400 households.
Source: Venezuelan communal councils · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Europe

Migros has had no shareholders since 1925
Founded 15 August 1925; Gottlieb and Adele Duttweiler bought the shares and converted it into a cooperative owned by its members. Now the Federation of Migros Cooperatives, 2 million+ members.
Source: Migros · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Finland's S-Group runs the country's largest supermarket and hotel chains
48.8% of Finnish grocery sales; 19 regional cooperatives owned by more than two million households; owns Prisma, S-Market, Sale, ABC, Sokos and Sokos Hotels.
Source: S Group · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Polish cooperative housing houses around 11 million people
Approximately 3,500 housing cooperatives managing more than 2.5 million units — close to a third of the population.
Source: Cooperative Housing International · read 31 August 2026
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Georgian winemaking is 8,000 years old, on 500-plus indigenous varieties
Georgian National Museum with the University of Toronto dated grape residues to approximately 6000 BC. The qvevri method was inscribed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2013.
Source: National Geographic · read 31 August 2026
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Bulgaria produces 70 to 80 per cent of the world's rose oil
Bulgarian rose oil production, centred on the Rose Valley around Kazanlak. This is the national figure, not a single cooperative's.
Source: Bulgarian National Radio · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Ukraine's cooperatives relocated and kept operating through the 2022 invasion
Ukraine's Law on Land Regulation in Martial Time (May 2022) enabled relocation; the EBRD ran a relocation programme with grants to €30,000; COOP Ukraine established a charity fund for affected consumer cooperatives. Ukraine remained among the world's top grain and oilseed exporters in 2022.
Source: International Cooperative Alliance · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Theory of Change · Explore · Home · Press

Mondragón: 81 cooperatives, 70,085 people, €11.2 billion in sales
Mondragón Corporation Annual Report 2024. Note that not every person employed across the group is a member-owner.
Source: Mondragón Corporation · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Rabobank: the Netherlands' second-largest bank, €629 billion in assets, owned by its members
2024 total assets, 22.84% market share. A cooperative with no shareholders, formed of independent member banks; ING is the larger institution.
Source: Rabobank · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

France: 23,000 cooperatives, 29 million members, 1.3 million employees
Coop FR. Worker cooperatives (SCOPs) are a subset — 2,723 of them, employing 62,685 people.
Source: Coop FR · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Emilia-Romagna: cooperatives produce about a third of regional GDP
Two of every three inhabitants are cooperative members. Excluding banking and insurance, cooperatives are 7–8% of the region's private GDP.
Source: YES! Magazine · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: The Cooperative Economy · Explore · Home · Press

Romania is replanting 16,000 hectares of orchards under a €200 million rural development programme
POP 2014–2020. Romania's orchard area fell from 425,000 hectares in 1975 to 138,000 by 2016, with about a quarter abandoned since 1989.
Source: EU CAP Network · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Austria's Raiffeisen network: about 1,600 local cooperative banks holding €404.5 billion in assets
Raiffeisen Group IPS aggregate assets, end-2024. The 1,600 local banks are grouped into eight regions and collectively own their regional bank. Note: the separate Volksbanken network did receive state aid during the financial crisis, approved by the European Commission in 2012.
Source: Austrian Raiffeisen Banking Group · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

The UK's co-ops and mutuals: over 10,000 businesses, 16.6 million members, £179.2 billion in income
Co-operatives UK, Co-operative and Mutual Economy Report 2025. They employ over 1.5 million people.
Source: Co-operatives UK · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Cooperative housing is a quarter of Sweden's entire housing stock — 1.2 million homes
1,212,299 units, 24% of the stock as at 2021, and 42% of all multi-family housing. Grown from 4% in 1945.
Source: Cooperative Housing International · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Australia and New Zealand

Australia's customer-owned banks hold $191 billion in assets for 5.4 million members
Customer Owned Banking Association — mutual banks, credit unions and building societies; around one in five Australians; the fifth-largest household banking provider.
Source: Customer Owned Banking Association · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Fonterra accounts for around 30 per cent of world dairy exports
Cooperative owned by New Zealand dairy farmers; collects roughly 94% of New Zealand milk production.
Source: Fonterra · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

The Middle East

Israel's kibbutz movement: 270 communities, about a third of national farm produce, from 2 per cent of the population
Approximately 270 kibbutzim with 120,000–140,000 residents. Kibbutz agriculture accounts for roughly a third of Israel's farm produce; the movement also contributes 6.3% of industrial output.
Source: Jewish Virtual Library · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Tunisia produces around 10 per cent of the world's olive oil
Second-largest producer worldwide after Spain, with output varying widely year to year because roughly 95% of the orchard is rain-fed.
Source: Olive oil production data · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Syria has regained wheat self-sufficiency for the first time since 2011
The Syrian Grain Establishment received over 2.7 million tons of wheat in the current harvest. Around 11,000 farmers in agricultural cooperatives supported by the Syria Recovery Trust Fund now cultivate 26,500 hectares.
Source: Milling MEA · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

Iraq exported more than 700,000 tonnes of dates in 2024
From over 22 million palms, more than a third of them in Basra.
Source: 964media · read 31 August 2026
Where we say this: Home · Press

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