Capitalised companies accelerate in the South

In the South of Italy, more new companies are set up in the form of joint stock companies than in the rest of the country, according to data from the 2024 Business Register. If the average birth rate of businesses in the South (Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia), at 3.8%, is in fact below the national average of 4.2%, the birth rate of joint stock companies exceeds, albeit by a little, the Italian average (4.6% against 4.5% nationally). Puglia stands out for being the region of the Peninsula with the highest birth rate of enterprises in the form of joint stock companies, at 5.0%. In this respect, the most dynamic regions in the South macro-division on the entrepreneurial front turn out to be the aforementioned Apulia, with an average birth rate of 4.1%, and Campania (4.0%, rising to 4.8% for joint stock companies). On the other hand, the business mortality rates recorded in the South prove to be decidedly lower than the national average (3.3% against the 3.7% Italian average), so that businesses located in this macro-division have an average growth rate of +0.6%, the highest at national level after Lombardy (+0.9%). Similarly, the mortality rate for joint stock companies is also lower than the rest of the country, at 1.6% (2.1% national average), guaranteeing this type of company the highest growth rate recorded nationally (+2.9%, compared to the +2.4% national average).

Shifting our attention to the characteristics of businesses active in Southern Italy, and in particular focusing on craft businesses, we can see that in Southern Italy the presence of this type of business is lower than in the rest of the country. For example, if we compare the incidence of craft enterprises on the total number of enterprises, we can see that in Southern Italy it is 15.4%, compared to the national average of 21.2%. In particular, the figure for Campania stands out, which, with only 11.8% of craft enterprises out of the total, is the Italian region with the lowest presence of this type of enterprise. The scarcity of craft enterprises in Southern Italy, then, also emerges in relation to the total number of enterprises in specialised construction work. While in the rest of the country, in fact, three quarters of specialised construction work enterprises are craft enterprises, in the South this share stops at 60.1%, with the exception of Sardinia which, with an incidence of 74.2%, is more in line with the rest of the country. Looking at the legal form, however, the percentage of craft enterprises in the South constituted in the form of joint stock companies is lower than the national average (6.5% compared to 8.3% in Italy), with Sardinia once again proving to be more in line with the rest of the Peninsula (7.1% of craft enterprises in the form of joint stock companies). Finally, with respect to the number of craft enterprises, the South stands out for the high presence of youth enterprises out of the total. While in the rest of the country, in fact, youth enterprises represent on average 9.7% of craft enterprises, in the South this share rises to 10.0% and becomes even more significant in Campania (11.4%), second at national level only after Trentino-Alto Adige/ Südtirol, in Calabria (11.0%) and in Apulia (9.8%).