RIMINI, Italy – Nearly 6 billion visits to Italian bars in 2025 (44% for breakfast, 29% during breaks, 14% for aperitifs, 6% for lunch, 3% for dinner, and 4% for after-dinner drinks) and a market value of €23.8 billion, with an average bill of just €4.20, and a network of 152,000 establishments spread across the country: three out of four Italian municipalities have at least one bar, a business open an average of 14 hours a day and often seven days a week.
This is revealed by the analysis by Fipe-Confcommercio on Tradelab data presented at SIGEP World 2026, underway at the Rimini Expo Centre until Tuesday, January 20th, in the round table discussion ‘The future of the Italian bar (and prospects for 2026)’.
The sector employs 367,900 people, including 284,606 employees, with a strong female (58.9%) and youth (41.3% under 30) presence, as well as a significant proportion of foreign workers (20.8%).
Over half of the workforce (57.5%) has permanent contracts; 148,830 of the 152,650 bars are independent businesses, and only 3,820 belong to chains, a model that reflects the family-run nature of Italian bars. The balance between openings and closures in the first three quarters of 2025 was negative (-2,884 units), and the business survival rate five years after opening is 53%.
Restaurant Market: Italy and Spain keeping pace, digital orders boom
Over the past eight years, spending on online foodservice orders in the five main European markets has risen from 11.5 to a staggering 39.6 billion euros. This is the finding from SIGEP World, running until Tuesday, January 20th at Rimini Expo Centre and organized by Italian Exhibition Group, where Circana outlined the European foodservice landscape in the talk “The European Restaurant Market – Opportunities and Perspectives.”
The analysis reveals a two-speed Europe: while the North is struggling, the South is keeping pace, with Italy, France, and Spain recording marginal declines. The real revolution, however, is digital: for both delivery and takeout from public establishments, online orders are simplifying time and payment. At the same time, optimism for the sector’s future is supported by the strengthening of the return to the office and the willingness of consumers to continue enjoying the pleasures of eating out, despite cutting other expenses.
Dining and Cooking