ROME – Since 2020 Italy has approximately 652 thousand fewer residents. But there is “another” Italy growing: it’s abroad. In the same period, indeed, a lot of Italians chose to reside outside the national borders, +11.8% since 2020. Today the community of Italian citizens residing abroad is made up of over 6 million people: “For some time now, the only Italy that has continued to grow is the one that has chosen to live abroad”, reads the “Report of the Italians in the World 2024” by the Migrantes Foundation, published on Monday. 

To be precise, the Italians who now live across the border of Belpaese are 6 million and 134 thousand (58 million and 990 thousand people live as residents in the Peninsula, according to “Istat” data).

Sicily confirms itself – in 2024 – as the region with the largest community of members of AIRE (the Registry of Italians Resident Abroad): 826 thousand, followed by Lombardia (641 thousand) and Veneto (563 thousand).

The regional origin is therefore distributed quite evenly: 45.8% of AIRE members are of southern origin (over 2.8 million, of which 956 thousand are islanders between Sicily and Sardinia), while over 2.3 million are from the North; more than 966 thousand are AIRE members coming from Central Italy (15.7%). All Italian territories are therefore affected by the phenomenon, but with important repercussions for those “already affected by critical issues, such as depopulation and economic depression”, reads the report. The reasons for leaving the country are however the most disparate, “from families who move to mobility for study, from travel for work to transfers for family reunification”.

But where do Italian expats go? What are the favorite destinations of Italians today? According to the Migrantes’ Report, 54.2% of the approximately 6.1 million AIRE members are, currently, in Europe (more than 3.3 million, of which over 2.5 million in the EU 15) and 40.6% in America (over 2.4 million, of which 2 million in central-southern America: i.e. not in Canada which is only eleventh in the ranking, like last year). Next: over 167 thousand in Oceania (2.7%), more than 78 thousand in Asia (1.3%) and 70 thousand in Africa (1.1%) – see the graphic below, from the report by Migrantes Foundation 

Going into more detail, in 2022 and 2023, overall, the main destination countries were the United Kingdom and Germany, which took the top positions in the ranking and welcomed, respectively, 15.1% and 13% .3% of Italian emigrants, followed by Switzerland, France, Spain, Brazil and the United States: these countries welcome, overall, 65.5% of the total expatriations of Italians (around 136 thousand out of over 207 thousand in absolute terms for the sum of the two years 2022 and 2023).

Download and watch all the graphics by clicking here: Mappe-di-sintesi

Canada, we were saying, is only 11th in the ranking of the countries with the most Italians registered with AIRE and is 14th in the ranking of the countries chosen by Italians expatriated in the last year (2023) with 1,095 arrivals from the Belpaese in 2023, compared to 12,042 in the United Kingdom which is at the top of the ranking, the 11,453 of Germany (second) and the 8,825 of Switzerland (third).

Canada, we were saying, is only 11th in the ranking of the countries with the most Italians registered with AIRE and it is 14th in the ranking of the countries chosen by the 89,462 Italians who expatriated in the last year, with just 1,095 arrivals from the Bel Paese in 2023, compared to the 12,042 who went to the United Kingdom which is at the top of the ranking, the 11,453 who emigrated to Germany (second) and the 8,825 who moved to Switzerland (third).

You can download and consult an extensive summary of the 2024 Report, by clicking here: RIM24_Sintesi

Photo by Roberto Bellasio from Pixabay