Attracting foreign investment is among the strategic priorities of the Italian Government, which is strongly committed to creating a favorable environment for foreign investors.
Italy is the third largest economy in the Eurozone with a domestic market of 60 million people and a GDP at current prices of USD 2.42 billion (IMF, April 2025). Italy is one of the main gateways to a market of 500 million consumers in the European Union and 270 million consumers in North Africa and the Middle East.
Italy is the 8° largest manufacturing economy in the world and the 4° largest country in the world by total exports (2024). The value of Italian exports in 2024 reached EUR 675 billion.
Our country is the second most attractive country in the EU, attracting €35.6 billion in foreign capital for greenfield projects (World Investment Report 2025).
Italy is the first country among the G20 economies in terms of industrial diversification. In addition, it is a leader in manufacturing, agriculture and tourism and has one of the highest trade surpluses in the world thanks to its specialisation not only in traditional ‘made in Italy’ sectors such as fashion, agri-food, wine, furniture and ceramic tiles, but also in other medium-high and high-tech sectors such as mechanical engineering, shipbuilding, motor yachts, aerospace, sports cars and pharmaceuticals. Italy is among the countries with a large positive trade balance among G7 and G20 countries with USD 54 billion in 2024.
Italy is home to numerous centers of research and development excellence and over 150 innovative districts. Currently, 15 Italian universities are among the top 500 universities in the world, and Italy is the second most represented European country in the QS World University Rankings (QS World University Rankings 2026). The Politecnico di Milano is the Italian university ranked among the top 100 in the world.
In 2023, Italy attracted 106,000 foreign university students, 16,000 fewer than the previous year, surpassing Spain for the first time since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020).
Italian researchers actively participate in or manage European R&D centres and networks, such as CERN‘s Particle Physics Laboratory and facilities of high competence and transnational interest in sectors such as aerospace and earth observation. Italy has a prominent role in the international scientific community and scientific production has grown faster than most other countries. In particular, Italy is the sixth most prolific nation in the world in terms of the number of scientific publications in various fields. Our country also ranks 9th in the top 10 of scientific research in terms of publications produced in the field of Artificial Intelligence (ranking led by China, the United States, the United Kingdom and India, considering the period between 2018 and 2023).
Italian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are among the most innovative in Europe: the percentage of SMEs that have introduced product and process, strategic and organizational innovations is higher than the EU average.
Italy is the second largest manufacturing economy in Europe (1,076 billion euro production value). In particular, in the pharmaceutical sector, where both national and multinational companies operate successfully, Italy has affirmed its role as Europe’s leading producer, with pharmaceutical production amounting to EUR 56 billion in 2024 (data Farmindustria, July 2025). Italy ranks first in the world in terms of growth in the value of pharmaceutical industry exports between 2021 and 2023, with a jump of $13.6 billion (Symobola Foundation).
Italy is the European country with the highest percentage of recycling on total waste (91.6%, twice the EU average of 57.9%). (Symbola Foundation, 2025)
Italy ranks first in Europe in terms of resource efficiency index (274 points), an indicator that highlights the ability to produce goods by reducing the use of raw materials, water, energy and the intensity of GHG emissions. This figure is higher than the EU average (147 points) and that of Germany (167), France (162) and Spain (131) (Eco-innovation Index 2022 data).
Italy ranks first in Europe in terms of the number of organic farms, with 82,627 operators, ahead of France (60,522), Spain (55,851), Germany (36,688), and Austria (26,251). With 856 designations, Italy also ranks first in Europe for registered and protected agri-food and wine products: 584 PDO, 268 PGI, and 4 TSG. Italy has a share of food products with chemical residues above the legal limits equal to 0.98% of the total, ranking second in Europe and first among the continent’s major countries (2022). Over the last 20 years, Italian agriculture has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by a greater percentage than other large EU countries (France, Germany, and Spain) and the EU-27 average (2021).
Furthermore, our country is the world’s largest operator in renewables, with 63.3 GW of capacity managed in 2023. In 2023, Italy entered the top 10 best photovoltaic markets in the world, with 5.2 GW of new solar plants installed.
Italy ranks third in the world in terms of trade balance in furniture with $10.9 billion, preceded by China ($119 billion) and Vietnam ($12.8 billion). Italy ranks first in Europe and second in the world for conference tourism, with 553 conferences hosted in 2023 (Symbola Foundation).
Italy has the most efficient goods clearance system, which is now fully digitalised.
Investing in Italy means having access to an immense wealth of intellectual and specialised knowledge that is unique in the world in all fields, and to extraordinary know-how in strategic sectors such as machinery, automation, fashion and design, food and cuisine. In recent years, Italy has also opened up to foreign investment in sensitive sectors such as energy, networks, telecommunications and transport.
Italian cities are embellished with a countless number of monuments and works of art whose beauty is appreciated and recognized internationally. In fact, the country ranks first in the UNESCO ranking (classifica UNESCO) for the number of World Heritage Sites (60 declared sites, 2024).
Today, Italy ranks first in Europe for regional tourism competitiveness and second in Europe for tourist arrivals. With almost 58 million international arrivals, we rank fifth in the global ranking of the most visited countries. (World Travel & Tourism Council – WTTC). In the first seven months of 2025, Italy confirmed its position as the global market leader, with total visitor numbers up 5.7% and international visitor numbers up 10.45%. The sector generated revenues of over €25 billion in the first quarter of this year alone.
The results achieved so far by the country are extremely favourable and testify to the renewed attention with which international investors are looking at Italy. In recognition of our long-standing commitment, Italy’s position in international rankings is once again on the rise, as witnessed by the main world rankings of the best research institutes (see also: Italy in international rankings).