Emilia-Romagna with over 11 thousand organisations leads the Third Sector in Italy

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Emilia-Romagna is home to 11,267 organisations of the Third Sector, worth 8.2% of the national total (136,700, according to Runts data from June 2025): it thus ranks first among Italian regions in terms of productivity, followed by Liguria and Piedmont. In fact, the average value per employee in social enterprises exceeds 37,500 euros, with the province of Ravenna recording the highest value in the country at over 53,000 euros per employee. Volunteers, on the other hand, amount to 246 thousand, while there are 72 thousand workers in the sector. This is what emerges from the 2025 edition of the Third Sector Report, based on the integration of various official sources.

 In particular, theMetropolitan City of Bologna is in first place for the number of Third Sector organisations, with 2,606 organisations (23.1% of those registered in the region), over 55 thousand volunteers (22.4% of the total) and almost 18 thousand employees (24.9%). They are followed by Parma (1,598, 14.2%), Parma (1,364, 12.1%) and Forlì-Cesena (1,228, 10.9%). Looking at the types of organisations, Social promotion associations (60%) prevail, followed by voluntary organisations (24.6%) and social enterprises (10%). Two-thirds of the activities concern the cultural, artistic and recreational sphere. This is followed by education and vocational training (31%), the promotion and protection of human rights (21.2%) and tourism activities of a social nature, in which one body out of five is involved.The social cooperatives constitute the heart of the regional third sector: in fact, they account for 90.3% of the 1,123 social enterprises based in Emilia-Romagna registered with Runts. Of these, about 67% (677) are also registered in the Regional Register of Social Cooperatives and, according to data as of June 2025, they generated almost 2.7 billion euros in revenues and about 1.5 billion in added value, employing more than 50 thousand people.

The region also stands out nationally for the average number of workers per social enterprise, with approximately 68, followed by Friuli-Venezia Giulia (66) and Piedmont (61). The regional Third Sector is therefore very solid, also thanks to the decisive role of public support, through the 5X1000. In 2024 in Emilia-Romagna there were 7,753 subjects admitted to the distribution, of which 6,230 actually benefited from 34.7 million euro of funding. More than half of the resources were concentrated in Third Sector organisations and non-profit organisations, which collected almost 80% of the choices expressed by taxpayers. There was also no shortage of regional funding: the fifth edition of the call for proposals managed by the regional Department of Welfare and the Third Sector, financed through ministerial funds, made almost 10 million euros available, funding 564 projects. Over the past three years, thanks to the partnerships, the number of Third Sector organisations involved has beenabout five times higher than the number of direct beneficiaries. In particular, in 2024 the Region made EUR 2.7 million available to support 133 initiatives. Overall, the projects developed in the territories have an economic value of more than 3 million. The regional share thus reaches 88.3% of the total costs, confirming the decisive role of public resources in the implementation of the initiatives.