Almost 70% of Italian municipalities have less than 5 thousand inhabitants

Considered the backbone of Italy, the small towns are home to almost 10 million inhabitants, 9.961.955 to be exact, out of a total of 60.483.973.

According to the newspaper publication La Repubblica, in August 2020, 16,5% of the Italian population live in 5.498 small municipalities, which represent 69,5% of the total number of cities. THE Italy has 7.914 municipalities in total.

Of these 9.961.955 inhabitants, 2.407.613 are elderly (65 years of age or over, 17,6% of the total of 13.664.363), 3.715.296 are between 40 and 65 years of age (16,6% of the total of 22.417.827) and 3.839.049 are under 40 years old (15,7% of the total of 24.421.783). 

There are 642.552 foreigners residing in small municipalities, 12,5% ​​of the total (5.144.440). 

Of the 29.427.607 men residing in Italy, 4.931.023 live in small municipalities. There are 5.030.932 women living in small municipalities, out of a total of 31.056.036.

O Aosta Valley is the region with the highest incidence (73 of 74 municipalities, excluding only the capital), while Piedmont is the one with the largest number: it has 1.045 small municipalities (out of 1.181), 88,5% of the total. 

Main numbers of small municipalities in Italy

THIRD SECTOR
In small municipalities there are 17,9% of local units active in the third sector (non-profit organizations) throughout the Italian territory: 62.255 out of 347.591.

The number of employees, also in small municipalities, is 71.279: 10,5% of the national total of 680.811. Volunteers are – compared to the entire country – 20%: 952.535 out of 4.758.469.

COMPANIES
There are almost 860 thousand companies operating in small Italian municipalities: 17,2% of the entire territory of Italy. Beautiful country, where there are 5.161.031 with 22.448.239 employees. 12,2% of them are in small municipalities, or 2.741.410 workers.

CULTURAL HERITAGE
Of the total of 6.633 cultural establishments in the state, 2.064 are located in small municipalities: 31,1%. Of these, 1.533 are museums, or 32,8% of the national total (4.675).

TYPICAL FEATURES
Of the 297 typical characteristics mapped across the country, 268 involve small municipalities: 90,2% of the products. Specifically, in Italy there are 167 products PDO and 130 An authentic and renowned tradition and of these, respectively, 93,4% and 86,2% involve the territories of small municipalities (156 PDO and 112 IGP products).

ACCOMMODATION STRUCTURES
In Italy there are 204.904 accommodation facilities for a total of 5.037.798 beds. In small municipalities, there are 56.099 accommodations and 1.372.051 beds: respectively 27,4% and 27,2% of the national total.

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All data above refers to the closing numbers on March 31, 2019.