Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

LIVING IN ITALY

MAP: Where do all the Brits live in Italy?

Have you ever wondered how many British nationals live in Italy? We looked at how many there are and where they live – and which areas of the country they tend to avoid.

Published: 23 February 2024 13:17 CET
Rome, view
A view of Rome and the Vatican from the Quirinale Palace. Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP

From the famous landscapes to food and relaxed ways of life, there are plenty of things which make Italy a popular destination for Brits moving abroad.

According to the latest data from Italian statistics office Istat, Italy is currently home to just over five million foreigners, making up around 8.7 percent of the country’s total population. 

This data only refers to people who have officially registered their residence with local authorities, and doesn’t include foreign nationals who only spend part of the year in Italy or dual citizens.

But exactly how many of these residents come from the UK and where do they all live? 

Largest English-speaking community

Italy is currently home to 27,760 UK nationals, corresponding to around 0.54 percent of the country’s total foreign population.

For context, the Romanian community, which is the largest in the country, is made up of well over one million residents and accounts for roughly 21 percent.

That said, Brits are the largest English-speaking group in Italy as around five in 10 native Anglophones living in the peninsula are from the UK. 

Americans are the second-largest English-speaking group in Italy with 15,580 residents (that’s around three in 10 Anglophones), while Irish people rank third with 3,660 residents.

Lombardy is the most popular region

Lombardy – the northern region boasting the largest job market in the country and including Italy’s financial powerhouse Milan – is home to some 4,890 Brits, making it the most popular region among UK nationals. 

READ ALSO: Moving to Italy: How much does it cost to live in Milan in 2024?

Lazio, which includes Italy’s capital Rome, ranks second with 3,860 Brits, while Tuscany – the central region famous for its art cities and stunning countryside landscapes – comes in third with around 3,800.

All in all, Lazio, Lombardy and Tuscany are collectively home to nearly half of the total number of Brits living in the country.

That said, other regions of the boot also have notable numbers of UK nationals. 

Emilia-Romagna, which includes the lively and youthful Bologna, is home to 1,920 Brits, whereas Piedmont, including the industrial hub of Turin, has 1,790.

Veneto, which is captained by Italy’s 'floating city' Venice, has 1,620 UK nationals, while the sunny and warm Puglia region has 1,230.

Brits love Rome

Though Lombardy may be the most sought-after region, Rome is the Italian city with the highest number of Brits as 3,130 UK nationals live there.

Rome's tourism industry, cultural cachet and government institutions mean it acts as a magnetic pole for the entire region, as around eight in 10 UK nationals living in Lazio are concentrated in the metropolitan area.

READ ALSO: Moving to Italy: How much does it cost to live in Rome in 2024?

Milan is a far second in the city ranking, as 2,380 Brits live in Lombardy’s capital. 

Tuscany’s capital Florence comes in third with 1,030 britannici, while Lucca (930) and Turin (750) complete the top five.

Southern regions (and the Aosta Valley) are generally avoided

Barring Puglia, all of Italy’s southern regions have comparatively lower numbers of British residents, with the lack of job opportunities in the area likely being the main determining factor.

Aosta Valley (a small autonomous region in the north-west of the peninsula) and Basilicata are the second- and third-least popular regions, with just 100 and 110 UK nationals respectively. 

READ ALSO: Retirement in Italy: What you need to know about visas and residency 

But the region where you're least likely to hear British English spoken is Molise, which is home to just 90 Brits.

This however shouldn't come as much of a surprise as Molise is the second-least populous region in Italy after the Aosta Valley.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLITICS

Can foreign residents in Italy vote in the European elections?

The year 2024 is a bumper one for elections, among them the European elections in June. Italy is of course a member of the EU - so can foreign residents vote in the elections that will almost certainly affect their daily lives?

Published: 3 May 2024 15:25 CEST
Can foreign residents in Italy vote in the European elections?

Across Europe, people will go to the polls in early June to select their representatives in the European Parliament, with 76 seats up for grabs in Italy. 

Although European elections usually see a much lower turnout than national elections, they are still seen as important by Italian politicians.

Giorgia Meloni will stand as a candidate this year, hoping use her personal popularity to give her Brothers of Italy party a boost and build on her success in Italy to “send the left into opposition” at the European level too.

When to vote

Across Italy, polling takes place on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th June 2024.

Polling stations will be set up in the same places as for national and local elections – usually town halls, leisure centres and other public buildings.

You have to vote at the polling station for the municipality in which you are registered as a resident, which should be indicated on your electoral card.

Polling stations open at 8am and mostly close at 6pm, although some stay open later.

Unlike in presidential or local elections, there is only a single round of voting in European elections.

Who can vote? 

Italian citizens – including dual nationals – can vote in European elections, even if they don’t live in Italy. As is common for Italian domestic elections, polling booths will be set up in Italian consulates around the world to allow Italians living overseas to vote.

Non-Italian citizens who are living in Italy can only vote if they have citizenship of an EU country. So for example Irish citizens living in Italy can vote in European elections but Americans, Canadians, Australians, etc. cannot.

Brits in Italy used to be able to vote before Brexit, but now cannot – even if they have the post-Brexit carta di soggiorno.

If you have previously voted in an election in Italy – either local or European – you should still be on the electoral roll.

If not, in order to vote you need to send an application more than 90 days before the election date.

How does the election work?

The system for European elections differs from most countries’ domestic polls. MEPs are elected once every five years.

Each country is given an allocation of MEPs roughly based on population size. At present there are 705 MEPs: Germany – the country in the bloc with the largest population – has the most while the smallest number belong to Malta with just six.

Italy, like most of its EU neighbours, elects its MEPs through direct proportional representation via the ‘list’ system, so that parties gain the number of MEPs equivalent to their share of the overall vote.

So, for example, if Meloni’s party won 50 percent of the vote they would get 38 out of the total of 76 Italian seats.

Exactly who gets to be an MEP is decided in advance by the parties who publish their candidate lists in priority order. So let’s say that Meloni’s party does get that 50 percent of the vote – then the people named from 1 to 38 on their list get to be MEPs, and the people lower down on the list do not, unless a candidate (for example, Meloni) declines the seat and passes it on to the next person on the list.

In the run up to the election, the parties decide on who will be their lead candidates and these people will almost certainly be elected (though Meloni would almost definitely not take up her seat as an MEP, as this would mean resigning from office in Italy).

The further down the list a name appears, the less likely that person is to be heading to parliament.

Once in parliament, parties usually seek to maximise their influence by joining one of the ‘blocks’ made up of parties from neighbouring countries that broadly share their interests and values eg centre-left, far-right, green.

The parliament alternates between Strasbourg and Brussels. 

Find out more about voting in the European elections from Italy on the European Parliament’s website or the Italian interior ministry’s website.

SHOW COMMENTS