The factories, offices, shops and shops in the small municipalities with less than 20 thousand inhabitants produce the 38 per cent of GDP generated by the entire private economic sector present in the country (industry and services); an incidence higher than that attributable to the activities located in the big cities (35 per cent of GDP), or those with more than 100 thousand inhabitants.
This is the main result of an elaboration carried out by the CGIA Studies Office on behalf of ASMEL, the Association for Subsidiarity and Modernization of Local Authorities, which represents over 2.800 Municipalities throughout Italy.
“Unlike large cities - says the coordinator of the Studies Office Paolo Zabeo - small municipalities have few means available and many problems of a supra-municipal dimension to deal with. The strong concentration of production activities in minor territorial realities requires these Mayors to respond with important answers on issues such as environmental protection, road safety, mobility, the adequacy of road infrastructures and the need for efficient local public transport. These are critical issues that require a large-scale planning approach which, often, cannot be activated due to the few human and financial resources available ".
Of the 750 billions of euros of added value produced by all the private companies present in the country (equal to just under half of the national GDP), 286,6 billions are generated in the small municipal administrations and 261,2 billions in the large ones. In the middle municipalities (those between the 20 and the 100 thousand inhabitants), the added value amounts to 202,2 billion (27 per cent of the total GDP for the industrial sector).
"The Municipalities with less than 20 thousand inhabitants - reports Secretary Renato Mason - are important not only because they are home to many private companies and generate a lot of GDP, but also because they constitute the 93 per cent of the total municipal administrations present in the country, there lives on 46 per cent of the entire national population and 41 per cent of Italian employees in private companies work there. Together with the medium-sized Municipalities, they are the main economic / institutional subjects that Roman politics should pay more attention to ”.
Disaggregating the total added value produced by private companies in the two branches that make it up, industry and services, emerges the great manufacturing vocation of the Municipalities with less than 20 thousand inhabitants. In these small local authorities the 54 per cent of the units operating in the industrial sector (equal to 533.410 enterprises) are established, the 56 per cent of the employees (just over 2.944.200 workers) and even the 52 per cent of the added value (163,9 billion of Euro)
"As was easily predictable - declares Daniele Nicolai researcher of the Studies Office - the service sector is concentrated especially in large urban areas: in cities with more than 100 inhabitants, in fact, we see 32 percent of the local units of this sector, 37 per cent of employees and 45 per cent of added value ". Small municipalities with fewer than 20 inhabitants, however, also carve out a role that is by no means marginal in services, accounting for 38 percent of businesses (1.370.462 units), 33 percent of employees (3.585.139 employees) and 28 per cent of the added value (122,7 billion euros).
- In the Triveneto area the small municipalities and small business alliance wins
If we do not consider Valle d'Aosta, Molise and Basilicata - which are the only Italian regions that do not have municipal administrations with more than 100 inhabitants - the Triveneto is the geographical area of the country where the smallest municipalities are concentrated the most high number of companies, of employees and also of added value.
In Municipalities with less than 20 thousand inhabitants, Trentino Alto Adige leads the ranking with an incidence equal to 64 per cent of the total local units of industry and services in the region. Friuli Venezia Giulia follows with 62 per cent, Calabria with 61 per cent and Veneto with 56 per cent.
With regard to employees, however, in the small local administrations with less than 20 thousand inhabitants stand Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trentino Alto Adige, both with an incidence of 63 per cent. Veneto followed with 57 per cent, and Calabria with 55 per cent.
Finally, with regard to added value, it is once again Friuli Venezia Giulia that has the highest incidence in the areas characterized by the presence of small Municipalities (64 per cent). Trentino Alto Adige (58 per cent), Veneto (57 per cent) and Abruzzo (51 per cent) are heirs to the most northeastern region of the country.
