New enterprises, Lombardy the best in Italy

The health of the Lombard entrepreneurial fabric shows positive signs. In 2023, as can be seen from company register data, Lombardy's total birth rate is 4.74%, higher than all other areas (North-West 4.18%; North-East 4.26%; South 3.86%; Italy 4.21%). Specifically, the birth rate of joint stock companies stands at 4.66%, higher than Italy (4.52%), the North-West (4.36%), the North-East (4.19%) and the South (3.83%). On the other hand, the total mortality rate of Lombardy's enterprises, at 3.82%, is slightly higher than the national average (3.65%) and in line with the figure for the North-East (3.85%), although lower than the North-West (4.04%). However, the distance appears more marked than in the South, which has a significantly lower mortality rate of 3.26%. Analysing the mortality rate of joint stock companies, Lombardy recorded a rate of 2.51%, again higher than the national figure (2.14%) and, in particular, higher than the North-East 2.08%, and the South 1.65%.

Handicrafts are a very important sector for the country, but especially in Lombardy. In 2023, the percentage of craft enterprises out of the total number of enterprises in Lombardy was 24.69%, higher than Italy, which stood at 21.24%. The Lombardy figure is, however, lower than that of the North-East and North-West, at 27.30% and 28.12% respectively, but still above that of Southern Italy (25.91%).

At provincial level, however, there is a Lombardy record. Among the top 10 Italian provinces in terms of the share of craft enterprises in the total, 5 are from Lombardy. The province of Lecco, with a share of 33.4%, ranks first in Italy, while Bergamo ranks fourth (31.6%), followed by Como in fifth (31.4%). In eighth place we then find Lodi (30.8%), while Monza and Brianza comes in tenth (29.8%). Milan, on the other hand, lags further behind, coming in 83rd, due to the strong presence of the service sector.

On the other hand, measuring the incidence of artisan companies on the total number of companies in the specialised construction sector, Lombardy, with an incidence of 81.19%, is again behind the North-West (84.66%) and the North-East (84.51%) but ahead of Italy (75.93%) and the South (75.93%). In the percentage of artisan capital companies out of the total number of companies, Lombardy's positioning changes. In Lombardy, 9.06% of craft firms are joint stock companies, compared to 8.33% nationally, 6.35% in the North-East and 6.49% in the South: only the North-West does better, with a percentage of 10.52%.

Finally, Lombardy's craft businesses show similar results to the other geographical areas in the percentage of young businesses. In Lombardy, in fact, 10.03% of craft enterprises are young, substantially in line with the North-West (10.33%) and the South (10.01%), but higher than the national figure (9.67%) and the North-East (9.69%).