Two countries form the Americas rank top ten in membership in co-ops
Statistics released this month by the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) ranked USA’s cooperatives first in total membership and Canada’s co-operatives (including credit unions) eighth in total membership, higher than many countries with larger populations. According to ICA, the world’s co-operatives have a total of nearly a billion members.
ICA’s top 10 is based on the total membership of all co-operatives in each country; in some countries, it is based on the total membership of co-operative organizations affiliated to ICA. As people who are members of more than one co-operative may be counted more than once, this does not necessarily reflect the number of people in a given country who are co-op members.
The ICA rankings, and total membership numbers, are as follows:
1. United States: 305.6 million members
2. China: 160.8 million members
3. India: 97.6 million members
4. Japan: 75.8 million members
5. Indonesia: 40.6 million members
6. France: 32.4 million members
7. Iran: 25.5 million members
8. Canada: 18 million members
9. United Kingdom: 11.5 million members
10. Bangladesh: 11 million members