The latest edition of the AUB Observatory, promoted by AIDAF, by UniCredit, by the “AIDAF – EY Chair of Family Business Strategy” in memory of Alberto Falck of the Bocconi University and by the Chamber of Commerce of Milan, returns the photograph of an Italian economy in which family businesses with a turnover of more than 20 million euros represent 65% of the total number of Italian companies, consolidating a total turnover of over 730 billion euros and employing around 2.4 million workers ^[1]. Widening the view to companies with a turnover of less than 20 million Euros, it is estimated that the percentage increases to around 85% ^[2] .

Data from the AUB Observatory also confirm that family-owned businesses create employment (+20.1% in the last six years, followed by +14.4% of cooperatives and consortia, +5.7% of branches of foreign companies , +1.4% of coalitions, -8.7% of companies controlled by funds and -12.3% of companies and state bodies), are growing more than other types of companies (+47.2% in the last ten years, against 37.8% of other companies), record higher profitability (ROI of 9.1% in 2016 against 7.9% of other corporate forms) and have a lower debt ratio.

In 2010, a study conducted by EU-EFIGE/Bruegel-UniCredit on a sample of around 14,000 European businesses showed that the incidence of large family businesses – intended as businesses with more than 250 employees -, while decreasing with growth in size, is in any case higher than 40% in the primary European countries: in France it is equal to 42.5%, in the United Kingdom it is 40.6% and in Spain it is close to 46%. In Italy the percentage of large family businesses is just under 47%. Germany confirms its status as an “atypical economy”, with a percentage of large family-run businesses equal to 67.9%. ^[4]