Add the Gazzetta del Sud as a source
Between 2019 and 2025, Calabria lost 474 bars, with a reduction of 9.7%: activities went from 4,906 to 4,432. A contraction lower than the national average, but concentrated above all outside the five provincial capitals, where there are 408 fewer businesses, approximately 86% of the regional loss. This is the picture illustrated by Confesercenti Calabria, which draws attention to the consequences of commercial desertification.
In the same period, in Italy the number of bars decreased by 14.2%, going from 169,839 to 145,766 businesses: over 24 thousand fewer businesses. Confesercenti estimates a loss of wealth for the territories of more than 7.2 billion euros.
Outside the capitals the contraction exceeds 10%
In the five Calabrian capitals, the number of bars increased overall from 949 to 883, with 66 fewer businesses and a reduction of approximately 7%. In the rest of the regional territory, the number of activities fell from 3,957 to 3,549, with a contraction of 408 businesses, equal to over 10%.
«This is the fact that should make us reflect more – declares Claudio Aloisio, president of Confesercenti Calabria -. The problem does not only concern large urban centers. Indeed, in Calabria the loss is concentrated above all outside the capitals, where the closure of a bar often weighs much more on the daily life of a community.”
Provincial data: Cosenza loses 277 bars, Reggio Calabria holds
The differences between the provinces are marked. Cosenza recorded the most significant contraction, going from 2,086 to 1,809 bars: 277 fewer activities, equal to 13.3%.
In Catanzaro, businesses decreased from 866 to 786, with a loss of 80 businesses and a reduction of 9.2%. Crotone goes from 436 to 389 bars, with 47 fewer businesses, equal to 10.8%. In Vibo Valentia the number of businesses drops from 411 to 367: 44 fewer bars, with a drop of 10.7%.
The province of Reggio Calabria presents greater stability: activities go from 1,107 to 1,081, with a reduction of 26 bars, equal to 2.3%.
«Calabria therefore does not present a uniform situation – continues Aloisio –. There are territories that show much greater resilience and others in which the contraction of the network is decidedly more evident. This also tells us that policies cannot be constructed with indistinct instruments: we must read the territorial differences and intervene where the desertification process risks becoming more difficult to reverse.”
«The bar is a service and a social presence»
For Confesercenti, commercial desertification concerns the entire network of local activities. In smaller municipalities, the closure of a bar can have consequences that go beyond the economic data, reducing services and meeting opportunities.
«In many municipalities the bar is not just an economic activity. It is a meeting place, a social garrison, a daily reference point. When a shutter is lowered and is not replaced by a new activity, a service is lost, opportunities for socializing are reduced and the territory becomes a little more fragile”, underlines Aloisio.
The initiative is part of the national Confesercenti campaign in support of the popular initiative law proposal which also concerns public businesses.
«This phenomenon is not measured only in the number of companies that close – concludes the regional president -. It is measured in the growing distance between citizens and services, in the loss of vitality of urban centers and towns, in the reduction of opportunities for work and relationships. The fact that Calabria performed better than the national average should not become an alibi. On the contrary, we must intervene now, when there is still a widespread network to defend and strengthen.”