The largest cities of Italy: urban units, municipalities and metro areas
Italy counted three ways: by continuous built-up area, by municipality and by metro area. 34 urban units pass 100,000 people; the largest is Roma, with 2,396,261. The city of Rome has 2,318,895 people within its limits; its urban unit, 2,396,261; its metro area, 3,721,055.
How Italy counts its cities
ISTAT, the Italian statistics office, publishes località: inhabited centres counted at each census. Rome, a very large municipality (1,287 km²), is one località of 2.4 million people.
The 25 largest urban units
Source: ISTAT, località, 2021 census.
| # | Urban unit | People | Area (km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roma | 2,396,261 | 422 |
| 2 | Milano | 1,343,289 | 147 |
| 3 | Napoli | 919,620 | 106 |
| 4 | Torino | 846,567 | 112 |
| 5 | Palermo | 626,491 | 87 |
| 6 | Genova | 551,688 | 79 |
| 7 | Bologna | 381,754 | 76 |
| 8 | Firenze | 353,356 | 61 |
| 9 | Catania | 296,286 | 45 |
| 10 | Bari | 280,347 | 57 |
| 11 | Verona | 222,357 | 54 |
| 12 | Padova | 204,325 | 74 |
| 13 | Messina | 199,223 | 37 |
| 14 | Prato | 191,251 | 44 |
| 15 | Brescia | 190,991 | 53 |
| 16 | Trieste | 184,067 | 31 |
| 17 | Taranto | 173,265 | 30 |
| 18 | Modena | 162,697 | 41 |
| 19 | Parma | 162,602 | 38 |
| 20 | Reggio di Calabria | 162,293 | 48 |
| 21 | Livorno | 150,968 | 35 |
| 22 | Mestre | 149,290 | 53 |
| 23 | Cagliari | 148,581 | 28 |
| 24 | Acilia-Castel Fusano-Ostia Antica | 143,096 | 40 |
| 25 | Reggio nell'Emilia | 140,210 | 46 |
The 10 largest municipalities and metro areas
| # | Municipality | People | Metro area | People |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rome | 2,318,895 | Milan | 5,305,299 |
| 2 | Milan | 1,371,498 | Naples | 4,026,785 |
| 3 | Naples | 909,048 | Rome | 3,721,055 |
| 4 | Turin | 847,287 | Turin | 1,832,899 |
| 5 | Palermo | 648,260 | Bergamo | 1,042,642 |
| 6 | Genoa | 580,097 | Florence | 990,000 |
| 7 | Bologna | 394,843 | Palermo | 935,275 |
| 8 | Florence | 367,150 | Padua | 751,719 |
| 9 | Bari | 316,491 | Catania | 744,384 |
| 10 | Catania | 311,584 | Genoa | 698,715 |
Municipalities: GeoNames, latest census or estimate. Metro areas: GHSL functional urban areas. Metro areas are named after their main municipality, which is not always the best-known name of the area.
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