One in three graduates leaving Italy takes away a degree funded by Italian taxpayers, only for another country to reap the economic rewards for free. This is one of the starkest findings in "Understanding and Countering Talent Loss: A Roadmap for Italy," a study conducted by TEHA Group in partnership with Philip Morris Italy and presented at the Cernobbio Forum.
In 2024 alone, over 141,000 Italian citizens moved their official residence abroad; roughly 45,000 of them held at least a university degree. Over the past decade, Italy has lost more than 300,000 qualified citizens. While preliminary 2025 figures suggest a slight slowdown, the financial toll on the public purse remains staggering: €7.2 billion a year in direct public spending to educate graduates who emigrate, a figure that surges to between €10.7 and €11.4 billion when accounting for lost potential value.
"This phenomenon cripples Italy's ability to translate skill, knowledge, and innovation into higher productivity and economic growth," noted Valerio De Molli, Managing Partner & CEO of The European House - Ambrosetti and TEHA Group. Without structural reforms, projections for 2035 warn of a cumulative loss of 760,000 graduates, over €120 billion in wasted educational investment, and up to €307 billion in lost potential GDP.