The redemption of small villages, digital life and smart working

AGI – The villages of Italy are certainly a cultural and economic treasure, also seeing an impact of 5 billion euros per year on the national GDP, with around 9 million visitors (32% foreign) and 90 thousand employees, but at the same time they are characterized by an accentuated phenomenon of depopulation, much greater than the average of Italian municipalities.

This is a fact highlighted again today in the study ‘The economic and employment impact of tourism and digitalisation in the most beautiful villages in Italy’ presented in a meeting at the Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia Treccani, in collaboration with the association “I The most beautiful villages in Italy”, an association that has been working since 2002 to enhance the small inhabited centers that express the excellence of our country and its beauty.

In particular, according to Istat surveys, the Municipalities present in the list of the “Most beautiful villages in Italy” have an average population equal to approximately half that of the Italian Municipalities as a whole. In the period 2011-2021, there was an average reduction in the population resident in the villages of -4.2%, compared to a reduction in the resident population at a national level of 0.7% in the same period. The forecast is that this phenomenon will accentuate in the period 2020-2030, with a -4.4% change in population in the villages compared to an average reduction of -2.8% in Italian municipalities. Thus, it is estimated that in 2030 the population residing in the villages considered the most beautiful in Italy will be approximately 1 million 285 thousand people compared to 1 million 344 thousand people registered in 2020.

Help could come from digitalisation and smart-working, considered possible levers for relaunching the villages. In fact, from the analyzes conducted by Deloitte, it emerges that the historical evolution of ultra-broadband (BUL) coverage in the most beautiful villages in Italy has been growing strongly in recent years, both considering the Municipalities and the real estate units (UI) covered : to date, 63.9% of the villages enjoy ‘Fiber to the Home’ (FTTH) coverage, and it is a very significant percentage, if we consider that in 2019 alone this reached just 2.2%. Only with such infrastructural development, in fact, will it be possible to reduce the market gap and create attractive economic and social development conditions locally for workers.

A figure considered very encouraging is the growth in the number of workers who have begun to stay in the villages in smart-working mode following the Covid-19 pandemic. This phenomenon seems to confirm an ongoing trend. In fact, according to research by Inapp, 41.5% of workers would be willing to move to a more isolated place in contact with nature and 34.5% to a small town. This is a phenomenon to be observed in parallel with the average level of digitalisation of companies, which recorded a significant improvement in 2022. According to Istat data, companies with a “High” or “Very high” level of digitalisation, measured on the basis of the digital activities that companies are able to cover, have in fact reached around 32% in the North-West and 29% in the North-East. Instead, in the Center and the South, the percentage, although increasing, remains at a lower level (23%).