This article presents estimates of the absolute and relative weight of cooperatives in the primary aggregate figures of the Colombian economy. These estimates make it possible to break down the gross domestic product and its growth in Colombia by embedding the appropriate factors of cooperativism. The above has been dealt with in two time series: on the one hand, the 2003-2010 time series, a period of cooperativism growth; and on the other, the 2010-2016 series, a period of deceleration in the large cooperative figures which, to a large extent, are the result of the liquidation and intervention of cooperative entities in the country. In order to achieve the objective of estimating the absolute and relative weight of cooperatives, the accounting information reported by Colombian cooperatives to the Colombian Confederation of Cooperatives (CONFECOOP by its abbreviation in Spanish) was carefully collected and processed, along with similar information from the Superintendency of Solidarity Economy and the various superintendencies. The article concludes that cooperativism has strengthened and contributed to the growth of the material standard of living of Colombians during the period under study. At the same time, its gross value added on top of the national total is reduced more than proportionally with respect to what its issuance of extended social in-kind transfers did, which shows the functional orientation to the common benefit and the general interest from a proposal of contemporary economic institutionalism.
