Underwater industry: Italia is growing, with the sector’s turnover at 3.5 billion

Italy’s underwater economy is worth 3.5 billion euros. This is the estimated figure set out in the first National Report on Italy’s Underwater Sector, a document that provides a comprehensive (and, until now, unprecedented) overview of a production sector considered strategic for the country.

The study, which *Il Sole 24 Ore* is able to reveal in advance, will be presented today during an event organised by Simona Petrucci, chair of the Parliamentary Intergroup on the Maritime Economy; and was carried out by Ossermare, the national observatory of Informare – a special agency of the Frosinone-Latina Chamber of Commerce – with scientific input from the Tagliacarne Research Centre, in collaboration with the National Centre for Underwater Activities (PNS) in La Spezia, Unioncamere and Assonautica.

The process leading to the production of this document – which, as the report’s authors explain, represents “the first assessment of the economic scale of Italy’s underwater economy” – stems from the memorandum of understanding signed in 2025 between Unioncamere, Assonautica and the PNS, which laid the foundations for the establishment of the National Underwater Observatory, with the aim of providing the country with a permanent tool for analysing, monitoring and understanding the underwater sector.

“The report,” says Giovanni Acampora, president of Assonautica Italiana and the Frosinone-Latina Chamber of Commerce, “highlights a production sector with a turnover of 3.5 billion, figures which confirm that the underwater economy is not merely a prospect for the future, but is already a concrete industrial reality, set to play an increasingly central role in our country’s competitiveness, security and strategic autonomy. This first study therefore represents a milestone, because any effective industrial policy and any development strategy require, first and foremost, the ability to recognise, understand and measure the economic phenomena they are intended to support. This is exactly what happened 14 years ago with the first National Report on the Maritime Economy, promoted by the Italian Chamber of Commerce system, which remains an indispensable reference point for institutions, associations and businesses to this day.”

Starting with a pool of around 1,700 businesses potentially linked to the underwater sector and identified through an initial reclassification of products and research ‘supported – as the report explains – by artificial intelligence tools, the verification process – both automated and manual – made it possible to identify 189 Italian companies actually operating within the underwater economy”. These companies “employ a total of 63,458 people, accounting for 0.34 per cent of national employment; of these, 25,403 are university graduates, accounting for 40 per cent of the total – a proportion almost double the Italian manufacturing average. The 189 companies generate €30.5 billion in turnover (not limited to the underwater sector), accounting for 0.72% of the national total, and produce €7.3 billion in added value, equivalent to 0.68% of the Italian economy. In particular, the value of products and systems related to the diving sector has risen, in less than ten years (2013–2022), from 1.1 billion euros to 3.5 billion, representing growth of 216 per cent.”