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Lombardy and Milan: the economic hinterland

Europe's leading industrial region

Lombardy is the economic heart of Italy. Its gross domestic product amounted to EUR 480.6 billion in 2023, about one fifth of the Italian total, and Il Sole 24 Ore calculated that the region alone would rank tenth among the economies of the European Union. Between 2019 and 2023 its GDP grew by 6.7 per cent, faster than the economies of Italy, Spain, France and Germany over the same period. Its unemployment rate of 4 per cent was about half the national rate of 7.7 per cent.1 Industry accounts for more than a quarter of Italian industrial value added, and Lombard firms supplied EUR 163.6 billion of exports in 2023, some 26 per cent of all Italian exports. The region leads in mechatronics, fashion, chemicals and pharmaceuticals and furniture and design, the sectors that have shaped the image of "Made in Italy" abroad.2 The Austrian Chamber of Commerce describes it as the leading industrial region of Europe among the regions of NUTS 2 level.3

The Italian statistical office ISTAT put Lombardy's GDP per inhabitant at EUR 50,400 in 2024, second among the Italian regions and provinces after the Autonomous Province of Bolzano. Its real growth in 2024 was 1.2 per cent, against 0.7 per cent for Italy as a whole.4 The Bank of Italy's regional report for the same year, which gives a lower growth estimate of about 0.7 per cent, describes an economy with a contracting manufacturing sector, construction supported by the national recovery plan and the preparations for the Winter Olympics of 2026, growing business services and an unemployment rate at "historically very low levels". It also notes that only 8.2 per cent of Lombard firms with ten or more employees used artificial intelligence in 2024, against an EU average of 13.5 per cent.5 The difference between the two growth figures is typical of regional statistics and shows how cautiously short-term numbers should be used.

For Ticino the relevant point is the scale. The canton's GDP was CHF 36.08 billion in 2022, about 4.6 per cent of the Swiss total, with a value added of 78.3 per cent from services, 21.4 per cent from industry and construction and 0.3 per cent from the primary sector.6 Lombardy's economy is thus more than ten times larger than Ticino's. Ticino's GDP per inhabitant, which USTAT gives as CHF 102,190 for 2022, is above the Swiss average of CHF 90,131. Part of this lead is a statistical effect of commuting: the value added produced by some 77,000 cross-border workers is counted in the cantonal GDP, while the workers themselves are not counted in the resident population.

Indicator Lombardy Ticino Population 9.94 million (2022) about 0.36 million (2024) GDP EUR 480.6 bn (2023) CHF 36.1 bn (2022) GDP per inhabitant EUR 50,400 (2024) CHF 102,190 (2022) Unemployment (ILO) about 4% (2023) 6.6% (2024) Exports EUR 163.6 bn (2023) not comparable

Table 1: Lombardy and Ticino in key figures. Sources: as in the footnotes to this section; Ticino population from USTAT.7

Notes

  1. Il Sole 24 Ore (English edition), "Lombardy, Italy's leading economy, alone would be tenth in the EU" (above). ↩
  2. Ibid. (mechatronics 29.2 per cent, fashion 28.3 per cent, chemicals and pharmaceuticals 30.4 per cent and design and furniture 29.8 per cent of Italian exports in the respective sectors). ↩
  3. Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, Regionaler Wirtschaftsbericht Lombardei (above). ↩
  4. ISTAT, Conti economici territoriali, anni 2022–2024 (Rome, 22 December 2025), https://www.istat.it/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/REPORT-CONTI-TERRITORIALI_Anni-2022-2024.pdf. ↩
  5. Banca d'Italia, "Presentazione del rapporto annuale sul 2024 'L'economia della Lombardia'", 12 June 2025, https://www.bancaditalia.it/media/notizia/presentazione-del-rapporto-annuale-sul-2024-l-economia-della-lombardia/; the full report is Banca d'Italia, Economie regionali no. 3 (2025), L'economia della Lombardia. ↩
  6. USTAT, Economia (statistical profile), https://m3.ti.ch/DFE/DR/USTAT/allegati/prodima/3604_economia.pdf (data for 2022). ↩
  7. Lombardy: Il Sole 24 Ore (above), Wirtschaftskammer Österreich (above), ISTAT (above). Ticino: USTAT, Economia (above); USTAT, Notiziario statistico 2025-42 (above) for unemployment. Ticino population: USTAT, "La popolazione cresce e invecchia", Notiziario statistico 2025-31, 11 September 2025, https://www3.ti.ch/DFE/DR/USTAT/allegati/news/254778ns_2025-31.pdf (358,903 permanent residents on 31 December 2024). The Lombard unemployment rate refers to the latest year given by Il Sole 24 Ore. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.

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