Foreign companies continue to increase in Italy. While showing slower growth rates than in the past, in the second quarter of 2017 the balance between openings and closures of companies led by people not born in Italy still shows a positive balance that came close to 7 thousand units. The system of foreign companies in Italy thus exceeds 580 thousand and if in 2011 it accounted for 7,2% of the universe of total businesses, in 2017 their incidence rose to 9,5%, an indication of an increasingly active immigrant population in the country's economic scenario.
These are the most relevant data of thesurvey conducted by Unioncamere-InfoCamere starting from the data from the Business Register of the Chambers of Commerce, on the presence in Italy of companies led by people born abroad, with reference to the second quarter of 2017.
The sector in which foreign-owned businesses are most present is trade (about 208 businesses, 36% of all foreign-led businesses), followed by construction (132, 23% of foreign companies) and by accommodation and catering and manufacturing (both close to 45 units). Almost one foreign company out of three (31,8%) is artisan. The most attractive region for the establishment of non-Italian entrepreneurs is Lombardy with 113 realities, followed by Lazio (76) and Tuscany (54).
