Sardinia: Youth-led businesses plummet by 26% in 10 years

In Sardinia, companies lack generational turnover due to the decline in the youth population.

The alarm was raised by the CNA Research Centre , which is asking institutions for "immediate responses on credit, training and business transfer".

In the dossier, the National Confederation of Crafts also details the phenomenon: "There are 9,476 individual business owners in Sardinia who are at least 70 years old, equal to 10.1% of the total. Ten years ago, there were 8,527."

The most critical data for Sardinia, however, concerns the demographic basis on which the generational turnover should be based: between 2015 and 2026, the island's population between 20 and 39 years of age decreased by 23.5%, "the most marked decline among all twenty Italian regions, compared to a national average of 10%".

"A dual movement—more older people leading businesses and fewer young people in the demographic pool from which to draw—exposes the island to a concrete risk of impoverishing its productive fabric, largely made up of micro and small family-run artisan businesses," the report highlights.

CNA observes that "in Sardinia, businesses run by under-35s have decreased by 26.6% in ten years (-4,646 units), a decline higher than the Italian average (-24%)."

These numbers are closely linked to the demographic contraction: between 2015 and 2026, the Sardinian population between 20 and 39 years old dropped from 391,340 to 299,428 residents, a loss of almost 92,000 people: -23.5%, the highest decline among all Italian regions, compared to a national average contraction of around 10%.

The effect of this phenomenon, as mentioned, influences entrepreneurship: between 2014 and 2024 – underlines the CNA Research Center – Sardinian businesses led by people under 35 dropped from 17,491 to 12,845” and “a smaller population and fewer youth-led businesses mean an increasingly limited pool of potential new entrepreneurs precisely in the years in which the number of older owners continues to grow”.

Looking at the data by province, Oristano leads Sardinia in terms of the percentage of business owners over 70 (11.8%); Nuoro is the province with the highest density of older entrepreneurs in the business fabric, fifth in Italy.

In terms of demographic decline, however, Southern Sardinia, Oristano and Nuoro are among the top three Italian provinces for declining youth populations aged 20-39.

After providing a snapshot of the status quo, the Confederation also launched some proposals to try to reverse the trend: "The data from our Research Center," say Luigi Tomasi and Francesco Porcu , president and regional secretary of CNA Sardinia, "describe an island that is aging in business terms in line with the rest of the country, but is losing its young people at a rate unmatched in Italy. This is a dangerous situation: if there is a lack of young people who could take over, the risk is not only the closure of individual businesses, but the loss of skills, workshops, and professions that have supported the economy and identity of Sardinian regions for generations."
For this reason, "we need concrete and targeted tools in our region: policies for business transfer, easier access to credit for those taking over a business, training and support for young people who want to get into crafts and small businesses."
"Every business that closes because it can't find someone to continue it isn't just the loss of an economic activity, but the dispersal of a legacy built over decades of work," Tomasi and Porcu conclude. "For Sardinia, where craftsmanship is a higher priority than the national average, this means protecting employment, communities, and the quality of work in our regions. The negative record of youth demographic decline must become a priority for immediate action for regional and national institutions."