Italy’s 14 Metropolitan Cities Ranked by Population

Italy’s 14 metropolitan cities hold 21,422,736 residents, 36.2% of the country’s population, on just 15.4% of its land (46,638 km²). Their average density is 459 inhabitants per km², more than double the national figure of 196.

Metropolitan cities are large territorial entities that replaced the provinces of the same name. Law 56 of 7 April 2014, known as the Delrio Law, created ten of them in the regions with ordinary status: Rome Capital, Turin, Milan, Venice, Genoa, Bologna, Florence, Bari, Naples and Reggio Calabria. Their territories coincide with those of the former provinces. Four more exist in regions with special status: Cagliari, Catania, Messina and Palermo.

This ranks them by resident population, compares their density and municipalities, and closes with the full cleaned table.

Population: four giants hold 59% of the total

Rome Capital is the largest metropolitan city with 4,231,451 residents, followed by Milan (3,241,813), Naples (2,986,745) and Turin (2,219,206). These four together have 12,679,215 residents, about 59% of everyone living in a metropolitan city.

Behind them comes a second tier of four cities just above the one-million mark: Bari (1,230,158), Palermo (1,208,819), Catania (1,074,089) and Bologna (1,015,608). Florence misses the club by a hair, with 998,431 residents.

The smallest are Venice (843,545), Genoa (823,612), Messina (603,980), Reggio Calabria (523,791) and Cagliari (421,488).

Density and area: Naples is the most crowded, Turin the widest

Naples is by far the densest metropolitan city, with 2,533 inhabitants per km², roughly thirteen times the national average. It is also the smallest by area at 1,179 km². Milan follows with 2,058 per km² on 1,575 km². Rome comes third at 789, then Genoa (449), Venice (341), Cagliari (338) and Turin (325).

Turin is the opposite case. Its territory is the largest at 6,827 km², bigger than Rome’s 5,363 km², but it holds only 2,219,206 residents. Palermo (5,009 km²) and Bari (3,863 km²) are also large. The least dense are Messina (185 per km²) and Reggio Calabria (163), where wide territories hold around 600,000 and 520,000 people.

Municipalities and the weight of the capital city

The 14 metropolitan cities contain 1,268 of Italy’s 7,904 municipalities, or 16.0%. Turin has the most by a wide margin, with 312, about a quarter of the total. Milan (133), Rome (121) and Messina (108) follow. Cagliari has only 17, and Bari and Florence have 41 each.

The capital municipality’s share of its metropolitan area varies widely. Genoa’s 566,410 residents are 69% of its metropolitan city, and Rome’s 2,770,226 are 66%. At the other extreme, Bari is only 26% and Catania 28%: most of their residents live in surrounding municipalities. Milan’s capital holds 42%, Naples’s 31%. Across all 14 metropolitan cities, the capital municipalities hold 9,308,078 residents, about 43% of the total.

How metropolitan cities are governed

Like provinces, metropolitan cities are second-level entities: their bodies are elected by the mayors and councillors of the municipalities within them, not directly by residents. They have three organs, the mayor, the council and the conference. The metropolitan mayor is by right the mayor of the capital city.

The full data

Metropolitan cities are sorted by population, largest first, with population

Metropolitan cityResidentsSurface (km²)Density (inh./km²)MunicipalitiesCapital municipalityCapital residents
Rome Capital4,231,4515,363789121Rome2,770,226
Milan3,241,8131,5752,058133Milan1,374,582
Naples2,986,7451,1792,53392Naples922,094
Turin2,219,2066,827325312Turin858,205
Bari1,230,1583,86331841Bari317,205
Palermo1,208,8195,00924182Palermo637,885
Catania1,074,0893,57430158Catania300,356
Bologna1,015,6083,70227455Bologna391,686
Florence998,4313,51428441Florence368,419
Venice843,5452,47334144Venice256,083
Genoa823,6121,83444967Genoa566,410
Messina603,9803,266185108Messina222,329
Reggio Calabria523,7913,21016397Reggio Calabria173,026
Cagliari421,4881,24933817Cagliari149,572
Metropolitan cities21,422,73646,6384591,2689,308,078
% of Italy36.2%15.4%16.0%
Italy59,236,213302,0681967,904
Italy's 14 Metropolitan Cities Ranked by Population

Source: Istat, resident population as of 1 January 2021 (Law 56/2014, the Delrio Law).

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