On the basis of the most recent Population and Industry Census performed by the ISTAT of Rome (National Statistics Institute) in 2001 there are 795,264 inhabitants in the Province of Treviso (+6.9% over 1991) and 72,565 local units (+17.2% with respect to 1991), which employ 308,097 workers. In practice there is a local unit for every 11 inhabitants.
Additionally, there are 3,728 public and private non-profit institutions (ISTAT data, 1999) and 43,697 agricultural businesses (ISTAT data, 2000), almost all of which are family-operated, 88% of which own less than 5 hectares of cultivated agricultural land.
In any case, the most important vocation of the Treviso economy is the manufacturing industry: 47.4% of the workers in the Province (almost 146,000) are employed in one of the industrial divisions tied to Treviso’s reputation in the world: agriculture and foodstuffs, clothing, sports footwear, home appliances, industrial machinery, furniture, porcelain, metal carpentry and the plastics industry.
The industrial complex of these divisions generated a volume of exports of over 8,300 million Euros in 2003: Treviso is the fourth province in Italy in terms of exports and the third in terms of the export/import balance of payments (first in Veneto) with a favourable balance of trade approaching 4.000 million Euros.

Treviso is the 4th province in Italy in terms of the value of its exports (the figure for 2003 was 8,328 million Euros) and 3rd in terms of the balance of payments between exports and imports (first in the Venetian region). The active balance of payments amounts to 3,972 million Euros: almost half of the regional amount and over three times the national figure.
Treviso’s vocation for international exchange can be summarised by the rate of coverage of exports over imports: for every 100 Euros of goods imported, Treviso exports 191.2 Euros. This rate surpasses both the regional rate (128.8) and the national rate, which barely reaches parity (100.4 Euros of exports for every 100 Euros of imports).
But Treviso has not stopped at mere internationalisation of trade: the path of international integration of production that Treviso enterprise has undertaken en masse is equally important, particularly in the division of fashion. The areas of productive internationalisation are Eastern Europe and the Far East. Romania was Treviso’s foremost supplier of imports in 2003.

Overall, Treviso’s most important export markets, regardless of the lacklustre economic situation in recent years, remain Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Spain and the United States – but it is interesting to note how the geography and dynamics of exchanges have modified in relation to individual commodity divisions.
Although Treviso exports declined by –0.4% over the period from 2002 to 2003 (and by –3% with respect to 2001), the Venetian region and Italy recorded even heavier drops, respectively –8.5% and –4% under 2002 figures and –7.7% and –5.4%, respectively, compared to 2001. The greater competitive resistance of Treviso’s products can therefore be seen. Let us quickly examine in greater detail the performance indications for the most important manufacturing divisions in Treviso, compared to Venetian and national figures. The data refer to 2003, the latest year for which information is available at this writing.