The Italian entrepreneurial fabric is fragile and is not in possession of effective tools to prevent and manage crises. This is the most clear aspect that emerges from the new investigation conducted by Rome Business School regarding the procedures bankruptcy started in Italy in 2024. The data returned to grow after 10 years, marking a +112% compared to 2023 compared to a total of 2,314 cases. The most affected companies are those of the services of services, industry and construction.
The path of bankruptcy procedures in Italy
The number of bankruptcy procedures started in Italy in 2024 followed the trend of GDP, recording a total of 2,314 cases as mentioned. This is the highest value recorded since 2014, when the peak was 14,735 failures, while in 2023 the historical minimum of 1,093 procedures was recorded.
As reported byIstatafter the peak of bankruptcies recorded in 2014the bankruptcy procedures in Italy have undergone a progressive decalage which, up to 2020has always been in line with the resumption of GDP. Later Covid’s pandemic arrived, with the collapse of the gross domestic product (equal to -8.9%) which surprisingly did not affect the failures of the companies.
The 2020 figure, in fact, indicated a descent of 32.1% of the failures for a total of 7,160 cases. The merit, in this case, was many Extraordinary measures Adopted by the Italian government, such as moratoriums, subsidies and locking of layoffs.
As conceivable, the following year, in 2021there was a rebound effect, with the increase of 36.2% of the bankruptcy procedures in Italy for a total of 9,755 cases. The long tail of the pandemic and the economic crisis that followed continued until 2024, after the positive numbers of the previous year.
In the face of the more thousand bankruptcies recorded in Italy in 2024, there is a thin consolation for the country: in the period between 2020 and 2024 Italian companies that opened procedures for bankruptcy dropped by 67%.
The most subject sectors to bankruptcy
There Italian bankruptcy crisis It does not involve all production sectors equally. As highlighted by the data of Influencein fact, between July 2024 and January 2025, the most at risk of those operating in the sectors:
- services (trade, transport and hotels), with 665 bankruptcy procedures;
- of industry, with 459;
- of constructions, with 443.
The national geographical distribution of failures is also not fair, with these 4 cities in the lead:
- Rome, with 209 instances (10.1% of the total);
- Naples, with 129;
- Bari, with 93;
- Padua, with 91.
The need for measures to combat crises
As highlighted by Massimiliano Parkeconomist of Central Europe Research:
In Italy, company failures have been caused by a combination of economic shocks such as the 2008 financial crisis, sovereign debt, pandemic and energy-inflationary crisis and internal structural fragility, including limited access to credit, the high tax burden and regulatory complexity.
Therefore, a intervention timely and effective contrast to counteract the trend described and, in this perspective, we look at the strengthening of the crisis code and insolvency and a greater use of Workers Buyout (WBO). In the first case, we are faced with a regulatory system that aims to safeguard the operational continuity of companies, in the second of a relaunch tool that allows employees of a company in crisis or without succession of detect its priority.
