Current State of Meritocracy in Italy
The ‘Meritometro’ report highlights a serious lack of meritocracy in Italy, confirming it in last place among 12 European countries. According to the preview of the Meritometer 2024 report, now in its tenth edition, Italy scores 27%, far behind the first ranked country, Finland (66%), and the penultimate, Spain (36%). The biggest gaps are found in the pillars of ‘freedom’, ‘rules’, ‘transparency’ and ‘attractiveness for talent’, while there is a slight improvement in the ‘equal opportunities’ and ‘quality of the education system’ categories. Social mobility, on the other hand, remains unchanged, with an increase of only 0.66 percentage points over the previous year.
The National Day of Merit
On 6 February 2025, at 18:00, Milan hosted the 8th edition of the National Merit Day, entitled ‘Merit, a key factor of attractiveness’. This event, organised by the Forum della Meritocrazia in collaboration with Deloitte, aims to take stock of the state of health of meritocracy in Italy and the main European countries.
Maria Cristina Origlia, President of the Forum della Meritocrazia, emphasised the urgent need for integrated policy responses and a qualitative leap in corporate governance, elements that can lead to greater engagement of people, higher productivity and greater competitiveness.
Valeria Brambilla, CEO of Deloitte & Touche, highlighted the importance of creating a virtuous cycle within companies that stimulates growth, motivation and innovation, valuing diversity as a strategic factor.
The Meritocracy Forum
The Forum della Meritocrazia is the first third-sector organisation in Italy dedicated to promoting the culture of merit in the labour market and society in general. Founded in 2011, the Forum operates independently and non-partisan, proposing national and international best practices through multi-year projects aimed at young people, companies and public administrations.
Tools such as the ‘meritometer’, developed in collaboration with the Università Cattolica, and the ‘meritorg’, which monitors merit in organisations, make it possible to measure the effectiveness of meritocracy policies and to identify areas for improvement in order to foster the development of ideas, skills and talents in an inclusive and virtuous perspective.
Conclusions and Future Perspectives
The Meritometro 2024 report underlines a critical situation for meritocracy in Italy, highlighting the urgency of structural interventions to improve the attractiveness and retention of qualified human capital. The slow growth in the measured parameters confirms that the country is held back by excessive bureaucracy, low attractiveness of human capital and limited social mobility.
It is clear that in order to build a more dynamic and competitive ecosystem, measures need to be taken to improve transparency, rules and governance, which are key elements in fostering the development of talent and skills.
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