Italian small businesses are aging, following the population trend in the Belpaese. As of June 2025, there were 314,824 business owners aged 70 or older, accounting for 10.7% of the total: there were 290,328 in 2015 (8.9%). This is an increase of 24,496 in a decade in which instead the entire universe of sole proprietorships has shrunk by more than 300,000. This is according to a study by Unioncamere-InfoCamere based on data from the Business Register of Chambers of Commerce. The phenomenon is particularly pronounced in the South: Basilicata (15%), Abruzzo (14%), Sicily, (13.3%), and Puglia (13.2%) are among the regions with the highest incidence of over-70s. Also of note is the Umbria-Marche pair, where the share of owners over 70 exceeds the ‘threshold’ of 14%. Record highs are reached in some provinces: Grosseto (18.7%), Trapani and Chieti (17.6%), Taranto (15.9%), and Enna (15.6%). On the other hand, the presence of owners over 70 years old in large cities is very low: Milan (6.4% of the total), Turin (6.5%), Naples (8.3%). In the decade 2015-2025, the number of business owners over 70 increased in more than two-thirds of Italian provinces, but with very different dynamics. In absolute value, the provinces with the largest increases in entrepreneurs over 70 are: Palermo (+1,840) Turin (+1,794) Milan (+1,763) Naples (+1,439) Reggio Calabria (+1,314). Areas characterized partly by a broad entrepreneurial base and partly by the persistence of family models in more traditional activities.