Italian companies in Hungary: What happened in 2024 and 2025

Hungary kept its pull for Italian entrepreneurship over the last two years — but the shape of new company formation changed. Looking at the “Database of Italian companies” curated by ITL Group, the headline is simple: 2025 accelerated, sector choices leaned even more toward services, and registrations became slightly less Budapest-concentrated while a few unexpected local hubs emerged.

The big picture: 2025 gained speed

After standardizing the two date formats in the file and counting unique companies by tax number:

• 2024: 97 newly established companies

• 2025: 117 newly established companies (+20, about +21% year-on-year)

That translates into a higher “opening pace”:

• 2024 average: 8.1 companies/month

• 2025 average: 9.8 companies/month

Where they registered: Budapest still dominates, but the map widens

Budapest remains the center of gravity in both years, but its share declines in 2025:

• 2024: 72 of 97 (74.2%) registered in Budapest

• 2025: 77 of 117 (65.8%) registered in Budapest

2024: outside Budapest, the secondary presence is relatively scattered, with Pest and Fejér (6 each) leading the “rest of the country.”

2025: a standout regional cluster appears in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county, with 15 registrations (about 12.8% of all 2025 establishments), concentrated especially in: Nagyrév (8) and Tiszaföldvár (6).

What they do: services lead — and consultancy surges

The nature of these investments has also shifted, with a heightened focus on service-oriented sectors such as management consulting, advertising, and digital technology.

Across both years, the dominant profile is service-led, but 2025 pushes that trend further.

• Management/business consulting (TEÁOR text):

  • 2024: 13

  • 2025: 29

• Advertising agency activity:

  • 2024: 3

  • 2025: 8

Beyond that, 2025 shows more recurring presence in IT/digital, real estate, and facility services, while 2024 looks slightly more “mixed” with more visible retail/hospitality/trade entries alongside services.

When they opened: a spring peak in 2024 vs an autumn peak in 2025

• 2024 peak month: April (13); lowest: August (2)

• 2025 peak month: October (16); then a softer end-of-year (December 5)

In quarterly terms, 2025 is notably consistent (Q1–Q4 are nearly even), while 2024 shows a clear summer slowdown.

What changed between 2024 and 2025 — and what it might mean

Three shifts stand out:

1. Higher volume: 2025 adds +20 new companies (monthly average 8.1 → 9.8).

2. Slightly less Budapest-centric: Budapest remains #1, but its share drops (74% → 66%), with a clear county cluster emerging in 2025.

3. Even stronger tilt to services: consulting becomes even more dominant, with growth in advertising and stronger signals in IT/digital and real estate.

If 2024 looked like a strong but uneven year, 2025 looks like a year where Italian company formation became more continuous, more service-driven, and more geographically diversified — without losing Budapest as the main base.

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ITL Study Center: from investment guides to company financial statement analysis

The figures come from ITL Group’s Database of Italian companies in Hungary, a project created in 2010 and updated monthly, also used for analyses published on Economia.hu (online since 2008).

For more information or to request PRO access for the Database, contact ITL Group at marketing@itlgroup.hu

Visit the website now: https://aziende.itlgroup.hu/