When you're thinking about moving to Italy, it's natural to wonder what everyday life will feel like. Will you feel comfortable walking around your neighborhood? And what will the air be like, especially in winter?
Those aren't easy questions to answer after a short visit. To help you explore them, we've added reported crime figures from ISTAT and air-quality measurements from the European Environment Agency to our province pages. I've brought together fourteen provinces, including several places people often consider when moving to Italy, so you can compare them and decide what you'd like to look into further.
Comparing crime and air quality in fourteen Italian provinces
| Province | Region | Reported crime | Home burglary | PM10 | PM2.5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milano | Lombardy | 6,989 | 291 | 27.9 | 18.8 |
| Firenze | Tuscany | 6,567 | 431 | 22.7 | 12.7 |
| Roma | Lazio | 6,434 | 297 | 22.3 | 10.6 |
| Rimini | Emilia-Romagna | 6,042 | 353 | 20.0 | 13.4 |
| Napoli | Campania | 4,489 | 141 | 41.3 | 12.4 |
| Palermo | Sicily | 3,946 | 101 | 29.2 | 13.1 |
| Perugia | Umbria | 3,555 | 427 | 19.0 | 11.4 |
| Terni | Umbria | 3,459 | 369 | 24.3 | 14.1 |
| Bolzano | Trentino-Alto Adige | 3,363 | 240 | – | – |
| Arezzo | Tuscany | 3,245 | 379 | 18.1 | 9.0 |
| Siena | Tuscany | 3,042 | 362 | 18.6 | 10.8 |
| Udine | Friuli-Venezia Giulia | 2,981 | 338 | 19.2 | 13.3 |
| Lecce | Puglia | 2,813 | 248 | – | – |
| Macerata | Marche | 2,630 | 193 | – | – |
Reported crime and home burglary: crimes reported to the police per 100,000 residents, ISTAT, 2024. PM10 and PM2.5: annual average concentration in µg/m³ across the European Environment Agency stations assigned to each province, 2024. A dash means the EEA publishes no figure for that province.
Why reported crime rates are higher in some cities and tourist areas
The four provinces with the highest reported crime rates in this comparison are Milan, Florence, Rome and Rimini, each with more than 6,000 reported crimes per 100,000 residents. Macerata, Lecce, Udine and Siena have rates less than half those of Milan or Florence.
One possible reason is that larger cities and busy visitor destinations have more opportunities for theft. Another is how the rates are calculated. ISTAT divides crimes by the number of residents, but many crimes in a place like Florence or Rimini happen to visitors. ISTAT's well-being data shows this clearly for pickpocketing: in 2023 the province of Rome reported about 755 pickpocketing cases per 100,000 residents and Rimini about 509, compared with about 32 in Lecce. A high rate in a tourist province may say more about crowded streets in summer than about life on a quiet residential street.
How home burglary rates compare
If you're looking for a home in Italy, you may also want to compare burglary rates. They don't follow quite the same pattern as overall reported crime.
The highest home burglary rates in our table are in central Italy: about 431 per 100,000 residents in the province of Florence and 427 in Perugia, followed by Arezzo, Terni and Siena. The lowest are in Palermo, at about 101, and Naples, at about 141. Macerata, at about 193, is also well below the central Italian provinces.
These figures surprised me. They count burglaries reported to the police, and reporting practices can differ from one place to another. If you're considering a home in one of these provinces, the figures are a useful reason to ask local residents about home security and what precautions are common in their neighborhood.
What the figures show about homicide
ISTAT's well-being data also counts intentional homicides. In every one of these fourteen provinces, the most recent rate is between 0.3 and 1.5 per 100,000 residents. These rates are low. Because the numbers are small, a difference between two provinces in a single year doesn't necessarily tell us much about how safe either place will feel to live in.
How air quality differs across these provinces
PM10 and PM2.5 are fine particles in the air, mostly from traffic, heating, industry and, in some places, dust. Lower is better.
The province of Naples has the highest average PM10 in our table, about 41.3 µg/m³, well above any other. Milan has the highest PM2.5, the finer and generally more harmful of the two, at about 18.8 µg/m³. The Po Valley, where Milan sits, tends to trap pollution in still winter air, and its figures reflect that.
Among the provinces with measurements in our table, some of the lowest particle levels are in inland Tuscany and Umbria. Arezzo has the lowest PM2.5, about 9.0 µg/m³, and Siena, Arezzo and Perugia all have PM10 levels around 18 to 19. Terni, with its industrial history, is a little higher than its Umbrian neighbor, at about 24.3 PM10.
We don't have comparable 2024 air-quality figures for Bolzano, Lecce or Macerata from this dataset. That doesn't mean their air is especially clean or polluted. It simply means there isn't a figure here to compare.
What this means when you're choosing where to live
These figures don't tell us whether a particular neighborhood will feel safe or comfortable. They do help us ask more specific questions about everyday life.
If you're considering Florence, for example, you might want to ask about pickpocketing in busy areas and security in the neighborhood where you'd live. If you're considering the Naples area, you might want to look more closely at air quality in the particular town and season you're interested in.
Four questions to ask about safety and air quality
If safety and air quality are on your list, these are the questions I would look at first.
Which concerns are most relevant to you? Pickpocketing in a busy tourist area, home security and winter air quality are different concerns. Think about which ones are most relevant to where and how you'd like to live.
What is the area around the home like? Burglary rates cover a whole province, not a particular street. If you're considering a ground-floor apartment or a house outside town, ask what security measures are common locally.
What is the air like in winter? In some parts of Italy, pollution can build up during colder months because of heating and weather conditions. If you're concerned about air quality, a winter visit may tell you more than a spring vacation.
What do local residents say? The figures are a starting point. Talking with people who live there can help you understand the differences between neighborhoods and what daily life is actually like.
What these figures can't tell you
These are reported crimes. The figures count crimes reported to the police. Some crimes, especially minor ones, often go unreported, and reporting habits may differ from place to place.
Visitor numbers affect the comparison. Crime rates are calculated using the resident population, even though some reported incidents involve visitors. That's especially relevant in busy tourist destinations.
Province figures cover very different places. A province includes its capital and its smallest villages. A city center and a hill town in the same province can feel completely different.
Air figures come from a limited number of stations. Each province's value averages the monitoring stations assigned to it, and a station only counts when it reported for at least three-quarters of the year. A station next to a busy road and one in a park can give very different readings.
A note on the numbers
Reported crime and home burglary rates come from ISTAT's province-level crime statistics for 2024, per 100,000 residents. PM10 and PM2.5 come from the European Environment Agency's validated air-quality data for 2024, averaged across the stations assigned to each province. Homicide and pickpocketing rates come from ISTAT's BES well-being data, for 2022 and 2023. ISTAT's BES also publishes a separate burglary series for 2023 using a different method, so we use only the 2024 figure here. You can open every province in this piece on its own page, with the source and year next to each number.
If you live in Italy, I would love to hear whether the numbers match your own experience. Has your town felt safer, or less safe, than you expected?
