Overview

• EU Commission forecasts place Italy’s 2025 GDP per capita at purchasing-power parity with France’s.
• The gap with Germany has more than halved from 24.3% in 2020 to 13.9% in 2025.
• Italy’s population grew by just 3.6% between 2000 and 2024, artificially inflating per-person GDP through a shrinking denominator.
• Lower living costs in small towns and peripheral regions enhance Italians’ real purchasing power relative to major European cities.
• GDP per employee declined 5.8% between 2020 and 2024 even as employment growth matched that of France and Germany.