Quality of life and entrepreneurship examined. Last in the country for labor productivity in 2024, according to the CGIA of Mestre, Ragusa is the most generative province in Sicily and is the sixth in Italy, based on the 2023 report on the well-being of the provinces prepared by Economia Civile.
The ongoing generativity indicator, which measures socioeconomic profiles not investigated in other reports on quality of life, brings together heterogeneous dimensions but all connected to the “forward projection” of the provinces: demographics and family, hospitality and civil commitment. Despite losing three positions compared to 2022, Ragusa is in the top ten of the most generative provinces in Italy. This record must be read in conjunction with the Iblean positioning in other rankings on the quality of life by 2023. In 64th place in the general indicator on well-being of Civil Economy, in 88th place in the quality of life index of Italia Oggi, in 86th place in the similar survey by Il Sole 24 Ore.
In all three rankings as of 2023, Ragusa is always ahead of the other Sicilian provinces, thus making it the most livable on the island. However, when the quality of life indicator is disaggregated by demographic groups, Ragusa is in 104th place for children, 85th place for young people and 76th place for the elderly. Three dimensions in particular weigh on the (presumed) unliveability of the Hyblean province for children: number of users of municipal services for children, lowest score reported by students in the Invalsi system (alphabetic and numerical skills) and number of school buildings equipped with a gym. Nonetheless, Ragusa is the second province in Italy both in terms of birth rate and average number of children per woman, according to Becchetti and his fellow economists. Therefore, the people of Ragusa are looking ahead.
The Iblean province is in 87th place in Lega Ambiente’s urban ecosystem indicator, the fourth in Sicily after Agrigento, Enna and Trapani. In another survey by Sole 24 Ore in collaboration with 3b Meteo, Ragusa is eightieth for climate well-being.
Moving on to business economics, there is a 2022 study on entrepreneurial ecosystems conducted for Italy by the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Observatory (Utrecht University, Netherlands) and the IMT- Scuola Alti Studi di Lucca. In this ranking, which examines a series of indicators on entrepreneurship, the Iblea province is sixth last at a national level. This positioning is affected in particular by some dimensions: the modest funding for innovative entrepreneurship, the scarce presence of physical infrastructures for innovation and the small number of start-ups.
However, under entrepreneurial culture – in the study in question and in the scientific literature considered a fundamental “ingredient” for the good functioning of ecosystems – Ragusa, in 36th place nationally, ranks better than Catania and Palermo and it is the first in Sicily. Furthermore, looking at the number of large companies (with revenues greater than 50 million euros) on the total number of companies in the area, Ragusa records an incidence more than double that of Catania.
Again, examining new entrepreneurship, in ten years (from 2013 to 2023), the rate of creation of new businesses was higher than the regional average. Finally, in terms of number of businesses with owners under 35, Ragusa is the 29th province in Italy for youth entrepreneurship. Due to the scarce presence of innovative companies (38 in total according to the Business Register), the Iblea province remains off the radar in the 2024 ranking of startup ecosystems drawn up by the specialized site Startupblink which for Sicily can only examine Catania (13 ° place in Italy) and Palermo (14th).
Like all Sicilian entrepreneurial ecosystems, Ragusa suffers from a low degree of internationalization. For example, in 2023 the Iblea province recorded a decline in exports of 14.3% compared to the previous year. However, comparing exports to the added value of the economy (6.2 billion euros), the export propensity indicator (8.5) grew more than the Italian average, placing Ragusa once again first in Sicily , ranked 86th nationally.
Lights and shadows, therefore. But the former are more. There is a good social generativity that enlivens the territory, as Civil Economy attests. However, a fair amount of entrepreneurial generativity can also be found, which rewards the work of existing companies.
