Milan

The Province of Milan governs the largest metropolitan area in Italy, and is situated in the middle of one of the most highly populated regions of Europe. Almost four million people live and work in the district administered by the Province, all within an area of less then 2,000 square kilometres. This number represents 6,5% of the population of Italy and 41,6% of the population of Lombardy.

The province of Milan is the most important economic area in Italy: it involves 45.12% of Lombard businesses and 8.06% of Italian businesses.

Surface : 1.981 sq. Km

Population: 3.7 million inhabitants
Most of the population is concentrated in Milan city (1,300,977 inhabitants) and in the surrounding towns.

Infrastructures system: the province of Milan lies at the crossroad of north/south and east/west European trade routes. The area is provided with an integrated transport system consisting of a rail network of 1,600 Km, a 40,000-Km road and highway network and one of Europe's most important airport systems.

Economic system:

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of € 26,600 per person (10 % of the National GDP)
• There are 323,000 enterprises, mainly SMEs: 69% in the services sector, 29% in the industrial sector, and 2% in agriculture.

Services sector: Commerce, transport and financial brokerage services, along with services to enterprises, show the highest absolute revenue levels in Italy. There are about 216.000 companies operating in the tertiary sector, 77,500 of which in the advanced tertiary, and 8,800 of which in financial brokerage companies. The new economy sector registers also a considerable development, with about 9,000 businesses active.

Industry: With a diversified industrial structure, the most important sectors are: mechanical, metallurgical and electromechanical industry, ICTs (Milan has the highest concentration of telecommunication industries in Italy), textile/clothing and leather, fashion/design, wood/furniture.

Internationalisation: the province of Milan covers 26% of imports and 14% of exports of the country (€ 67,000 million for imports and € 35,000 million for exports).

Employment: There are 1.628 million people employed, 25% of them are self-employed. Unemployment rate is around 4.6% (national average, 9.5%).

RTD system: The Milan area is the most highly qualified scientific district in Italy, as about a quarter of national scientific and technological research is performed here. At the European level, Milan ranks the second place among all main cities in terms of number of organizations promoting innovation and industry-research relations. The potential for innovation in Milan is based on a well-structured university system and a high number of private and public research centres. There 7 universities with a total of 180.000 students.

Useful links:
www.regione.lombardia.it
www.mi.camcom.it
www.comune.milano.it/
www.milanomet.it
www.provincia.milano.it