Italy: Third sector grows more than China

According to a study done by Ipsos, which draws a map of the not-for-profit in Italy analysing Istat figures in Italy, 3 million 3 hundred thousand people do regularly voluntary work.
The turnover of the Third Sector is estimated around 38 billion euros and profits have doubled in six years, growing from 675 million euros in 1997 to 1630 in 2003.
The Third Sector has more employees than the information technology sector, as more than 630 thousand employees work in social enterprises.
In Italy there are more than 21 thousand registered voluntary associations, working primarily in health care, then in social assistance and finally in the cultural sector using mainly private financing (which represent 64% of their financial statements).
Solidarity world is geographically distributed in Italy as follows: 60% of the associations operate in the north of Italy, 19.3% in the centre and 20.7% in the south and on islands. This last one is the area where in the last years there has been the greatest growth of the sector (more than 6% since last census). On the other hand co-operatives of services are more spread in the south (32% of them are in fact in the south).
Istat is the Italian National Institute of Statistics. It is a public research entity producing official statistics for private subjects and institutions.

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