In 2023, there was a 1.8% decrease in the number of practicing attorneys registered with the Cassa Forense; this is about 4,000 fewer professionals concentrated mainly in southern Italy (-3.3%) and particularly in Calabria (-4.8%) and Basilicata (-4.7%). "The total number," said Antonello Martinez, President of the Italian Business Lawyers Association, "has dropped from 225,513 in 2022 to 221,523 in 2023. This is a physiological decline for a country that has the highest density of lawyers in Europe. Only Luxembourg, Cyprus and Greece have more. Among the large European nations we are in first place with almost 400 lawyers per 100,000 inhabitants, a figure that drops to 300 for Spain, 200 for Germany and 100 for France. It is also normal that the biggest drop in Italy was in Calabria, where the density of lawyers still remains the highest". After Calabria and Basilicata, in third place among the regions with the largest decline in membership are Puglia (-4.1%) and Molise (-4.0%). Sicily is fourth (-3.6%) with nearly 800 fewer members. The negative trend is also reflected in new registrations: in 2023 there were 6,393 registrations to the Cassa Forense compared to 8,043 cancellations, while in 2022 there were 8,257 registrations and 8,698 cancellations. As a result, the density of lawyers (number of lawyers per 1,000 population) in Italy, dropped to 4 in 2023 from 4.1 in 2022. The regions with the highest density remain Calabria (6.6), Campania (6.0) and Lazio (5.8), while those with the lowest number of lawyers are Valle d'Aosta (1.3), Trentino-Alto Adige (1.7) and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (2.2). Positive signs also emerge in contrast to the national trend. Lombardy is the only region with members growing albeit by 1%, equal to more than 300 more professionals. Sicily has the highest increase in average income: +10.6%, from 25,811 euros in 2022 to 28,558 euros in 2023. This is followed by Calabria (+9.5%) and Puglia (+9.2%). At the other end of the spectrum, Valle d'Aosta saw a 3.7% drop, with the average income falling from 54,059 euros to 52,039 euros.