Rome is the most populous city in Italy. With 2.75 million inhabitants, the capital of the country put ahead Milan and Naples. Compared to the number of citizens in 2012, the resident population of Rome increased by over 140,000 individuals. Regional data Rome is located in the center of Italy in the Lazio region. Lazio is the second-largest region in terms of population size after Lombardy. In 2024, the region counts roughly 5.7 million inhabitants, whereas Lombardy has over ten million individuals. The third-largest region is Campania, with 5.6 million people. Naples, the major center of Campania, has around 910,000 inhabitants at the beginning of 2024. Nevertheless, this city was, back in the 19th century, one of the largest cities in Western Europe. Tourism in Rome The Eternal City is also the main tourist destination in Italy and was the eighth most-visited city in Europe. The largest groups of international visitors in Rome came from the United States of America, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Every year, more and more tourists also enjoy the best-known tourist attractions in Rome, like the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Palatine Hill, which together recorded almost ten million visitors in 2022.

This statistic shows the ten largest cities in Italy in 2024. In 2024, around 2.75 million people lived in Rome, making it the largest city in Italy. Population of Italy Italy has high population figures and a high population density in comparison to other European countries. A vast majority of Italians lives in urban areas and in the metropolises (as can be seen in this statistic), while other areas, such as the island Sardinia, are rather sparsely inhabited. After an increase a few years ago, Italy’s fertility rate, i.e. the average amount of children born to a woman of childbearing age, is now on a slow decline; however, it is still high enough to offset any significant effect the decrease might have on the country’s number of inhabitants. The median age of Italy’s population has been increasing rapidly over the past 50 years – which mirrors a lower mortality rate – and Italy is now among the countries with the highest life expectancy worldwide, only surpassed by two Asian countries, namely Japan and Hong Kong. Currently, the average life expectancy at birth in Italy is at about 83 years. Most of Italy’s population is of Roman Catholic faith. The country actually boasts one of the largest numbers of Catholics worldwide; other such countries include Brazil, Mexico and the United States. The central government of the Roman Catholic Church, the Holy See, is located in Vatican City in the heart of Italy’s capital and ruled by the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. Officially, Vatican City does not belong to Italy, but is a sovereign state with its own legislation and jurisdiction. It has about 600 inhabitants, who are almost exclusively members of the clergy or government officials.

Throughout the early modern period, the largest city in Italy was Naples. The middle ages saw many metropolitan areas along the Mediterranean grow to become the largest in Europe, as they developed into meeting ports for merchants travelling between the three continents. Italy, throughout this time, was not a unified country, but rather a collection of smaller states that had many cultural similarities, and political control of these cities regularly shifted over the given period. Across this time, the population of each city generally grew between each century, but a series of plague outbreaks in the 1600s devastated the populations of Italy's metropolitan areas, which can be observed here. Naples At the beginning of the 1500s, the Kingdom of Naples was taken under the control of the Spanish crown, where its capital grew to become the largest city in the newly-expanding Spanish Empire. Prosperity then grew in the 16th and 17th centuries, before the city's international importance declined in the 18th century. There is also a noticeable dip in Naples' population size between 1600 and 1700, due to an outbreak of plague in 1656 that almost halved the population. Today, Naples is just the third largest city in Italy, behind Rome and Milan. Rome Over 2,000 years ago, Rome became the first city in the world to have a population of more than one million people, and in 2021, it was Italy's largest city with a population of 2.8 million; however it did go through a period of great decline in the middle ages. After the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476CE, Rome's population dropped rapidly, below 100,000 inhabitants in 500CE. 1,000 years later, Rome was an important city in Europe as it was the seat of the Catholic Church, and it had a powerful banking sector, but its population was just 55,000 people as it did not have the same appeal for merchants or migrants held by the other port cities. A series of reforms by the Papacy in the late-1500s then saw significant improvements to infrastructure, housing, and sanitation, and living standards rose greatly. Over the following centuries, the Papacy consolidated its power in the center of the Italian peninsula, which brought stability to the region, and the city of Rome became a cultural center. Across this period, Rome's population grew almost three times larger, which was the highest level of growth of these cities.

Naples is the Italian city with the highest population density. As of 2024, the largest south Italian city counts 7,800 inhabitants per square kilometer. Milan followed with 7,600 residents per square kilometer, whereas Rome, the largest Italian city, registered a population density of only 2,100 people, 5,700 inhabitants per square kilometer less than Naples.

Rome is the largest Italian metropolitan area. As of 2024, the urban area of the capital city has a population of around 4.23 million people. Milan and Naples follow with 3.25 million and 2.97 million people, respectively. In terms of inhabitants per square kilometer, Naples, located in the south, has the highest population density. Rome, Milan, and Naples are also Italy's largest cities.

This statistic illustrates the leading ten Italian cities with the highest proportion of foreign-born residents as of 2016. According to the study results, the town with the largest proportion of foreigners was Milan, where almost one in five residents (19 percent) came from abroad. The size of the foreign population as a share of the total number of residents was 18.6 percent in Brescia and 18.2 percent in Prato.

In 2020, the North Italian city of Cuneo was the city with the largest number of trees every 100 inhabitants. The city had 190 plants per 100 residents, whereas in Modena, in Emilia-Romagna, there were 115 trees per 100 population. Moreover, in Trieste, in the North-East of the country, there were 102 plants per every 100 people.

Milan, Bologna, Genoa, Florence, and Turin recorded a population increase between 2022 and 2023. In fact, all the other largest municipalities registered a decrease, most prominently in the south and on the islands. However, Naples is the third-largest Italian municipality, after Rome and Milan.

In 2024, the top city for startups in Italy is Milan, with a total score of 13.21, surpassing Rome by triple the score. Milan ranked twelfth in the European Union and is the sole Italian city included in the global top-100. Other leading Italian cities for startups are Rome, Turin, and Florence.

In 2024, the total number of foreign residents in Italy was over five million people. In 2023, Rome and Milan were the cities with the largest presence of immigrant population, followed by Turin, Naples, and Florence.

The statistic shows the leading five Italian cities by number of startups in 2017. According to the figure, the city of Milan ranked first with over 1.1 thousand startups, followed by the city of Rome with 589 companies. According to the same source, Lombardy counted a total of 1.6 thousand startups, while the region of Lazio counted 679, meaning the great majority of startups in Lazio was based in Rome.

The statistic shows the leading ten Italian cities with the highest number of architects in 2017. As of the survey period, the city of Florence, in Tuscany, was the city with the highest number of architects, counting almost 47 architects every 10,000 inhabitants, six more than in the city of Rome and ten more than in the city of Milan.

This statistic illustrates the top ten Italian towns with the highest percentage change in foreign population size in the period from 2012 to 2016. According to the study results, the town with the highest increase in the number of immigrants was Crotone (175 percent increase). The foreign population size more than doubled also in Marsala and Giugliano in Campania (149 and 126 percent increase, respectively).

In 2022, Florence was the leading smart city in Italy. This result was revealed in a study covering 107 provincial capital cities. The level of smartness of the cities was measured through the ICity Rate, which was determined by combining 108 indicators related to the following thematic dimensions: economy, living, environment, people, mobility, governance, and legality.  

Smart city features

Nowadays, smart cities in Italy offer a wide range of services, like free Wi-Fi, online services, and IoT and network technologies. In 2022, Cremona, Bergamo, and Rovigo were the leading smart cities offering online services. Moreover, a range of smart city apps has been developed for the Italian market covering segments such as culture and tourism, mobility, and security.

Smart city projects

Tourism and mobility were among the main focuses of several smart city projects that were carried out in Italy over the past few years, with a number of additional projects planned to be implemented in the coming years. Italian municipalities showed major interest in smart city projects regarding security, parking, and urban traffic management.

This statistic illustrates the leading sixteen cities in Italy with the largest industry added value in 2008, as a share of the GDP. According to the study, the top two cities were located in Lombardy: the most industrialized city in Italy was Lecco, closely followed by Bergamo. In these areas almost half (46 and 45 percent, respectively) of the gross domestic product was generated by the industrial sector.

The statistic shows the leading ten Italian cities with the highest number of pharmacists in 2017. As of the survey period, the city of Ascoli Piceno was the city with the highest number of pharmacists, counting around about 34 pharmacists every 10,000 inhabitants.

Most of the major cities in Italy saw a decrease in office transactions in 2023. In Genoa and Milan, the number of transactions fell by over 20 percent from the previous year. At the other end of the spectrum were Verona, Catania, and Naples, where transactions increased. In Verona, office real estate transactions rose by nearly 43 percent.

This statistic illustrates the number of trams in selected Italian cities in 2018. That year, the city with the largest number of trams in use was Milan, with a fleet of 493 trams. In Turin and Rome there were 200 and 164 trams in circulation, respectively.

In 2023, the biggest communities of foreign nationals in Italy were in Milan, Bologna, Florence, Turin, Rome, and Genoa, where more than ten percent of the inhabitants were not of Italian origin. These cities are mostly located in the north of the country. On the contrary, in the southern municipalities of Bari, Catania, and Palermo the incidence of the immigrant population is minimal, well below five percent. Italian demographics In 2024, beyond five million foreign residents lived in Italy, compared to the total population of 59 million inhabitants. Projections assert that in the upcoming years, the number of Italian citizens will progressively decrease, mostly given to the aging population and low birth rates. In fact, it has been predicted that the median age could reach 53.6 years by 2050, whereas the country experienced a constant decline in the number of births. In 2010, almost 550,000 babies came into life, but ten years later only 400,000 births were recorded. The divide between north and south From the distribution of immigrant residents, there is an evident separation between the northern Italian regions and the southern part of the country, making those territories less attractive for foreigners in terms of work opportunities. Analysis on the index of the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in 2005, in 2015 and 2025 reveal that the total wealth produced by the southern region represents only half of the one recorded in the north. Moreover, in 2023 the unemployment rate in northern regions was around four percent, whereas in the south it reached 14 percent.

Milan is the leading Italian city for waste sorting, with over 60 percent of waste sorted out of the total volume collected. While the volume of sorted waste in northern Italian cities is above 50 percent, this figure drops significantly in southern cities, such as Palermo (Sicily), where it amounted to only 18 percent in 2023. However, the share of waste sorted in Naples increased by roughly 10 percentage points between 2020 and 2021.