All things you need to know about living in Barrea
Barrea, in the province of L'Aquila, is home to 1 Americans: 0.15% of its 688 residents.
ISTAT counts 24 residents with a foreign citizenship in Barrea, 3.49% of the population. Among the nationalities we follow most closely, the only group is Americans (1).
These are small numbers, so we would not read much into the percentage or any change in it.
Barrea qualifies for the 7% pensioner regime.
On ISTAT's well-being measures, the province of L'Aquila scores in the top quarter of Italian provinces for PM10 Annual average concentration and hospital beds in high-care wards.
It scores in the bottom quarter for density and importance of museums' heritage and intentional homicide rate.
These figures describe the province, not the town. A comune can sit some way from its province's average.
Summers average a high of 23.5°C (74°F) and winters a low of -3.1°C (26°F), measured over 2015 to 2024.
Barrea sees about 1 days a year above 30°C (86°F).
It gets about 1,175mm of rain a year, spread across roughly 153 days.
These come from ERA5-Land reanalysis at the comune itself, not from the nearest weather station.
OMI puts residential purchase prices in Barrea at about €858 per square meter in the second half of 2025.
At those figures, buying costs about 31.1 years of renting the same property.
Barrea population over time
By nationality
| Nationality | Citizens | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Romania | 6 | 0.87% |
| Poland | 4 | 0.58% |
| Bulgaria | 1 | 0.15% |
| United States | 1 | 0.15% |
| Albania | 0 | 0.00% |
| Argentina | 0 | 0.00% |
| Austria | 0 | 0.00% |
| Australia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Belgium | 0 | 0.00% |
| Brazil | 0 | 0.00% |
| Canada | 0 | 0.00% |
| Switzerland | 0 | 0.00% |
| Cyprus | 0 | 0.00% |
| Czechia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Germany | 0 | 0.00% |
| Denmark | 0 | 0.00% |
| Estonia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Spain | 0 | 0.00% |
| Finland | 0 | 0.00% |
| France | 0 | 0.00% |
| United Kingdom | 0 | 0.00% |
| Greece | 0 | 0.00% |
| Croatia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Hungary | 0 | 0.00% |
| Ireland | 0 | 0.00% |
| Japan | 0 | 0.00% |
| South Korea | 0 | 0.00% |
| Lithuania | 0 | 0.00% |
| Luxembourg | 0 | 0.00% |
| Latvia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Malta | 0 | 0.00% |
| Mexico | 0 | 0.00% |
| Netherlands | 0 | 0.00% |
| Norway | 0 | 0.00% |
| Portugal | 0 | 0.00% |
| Russia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Sweden | 0 | 0.00% |
| Slovenia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Slovakia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Ukraine | 0 | 0.00% |
| Venezuela | 0 | 0.00% |
Country of birth
| Group | Residents | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Born in Italy | 659 | 95.78% |
| Born elsewhere in the EU | 9 | 1.31% |
| Born outside the EU | 20 | 2.91% |
Americans over time
Quality of life in L'Aquila
Full BES profile for L'Aquila →L'Aquila on cost vs quality of life (province-level) →
Tax regimes
Barrea qualifies for the 7% pensioner regime. Comfortably below the 30,000-resident ceiling.
Qualifying is about the town. Whether it applies to you depends on criteria no map can check — where you were tax-resident before, and where your income comes from.
How the 7% pensioner regime works, and every qualifying comune →Property prices
Buying in Barrea is above the L'Aquila average of €704/m². Averaged across 2 OMI micro-zones, which can differ substantially within the same town.
31.1 years of rent here equal the purchase price — well above the national median of 22.2 years.
A ratio between two OMI prices, not a return on investment. It leaves out purchase taxes, IMU, maintenance, financing and the months a place sits empty — all of which push the real figure up. Useful for the question it does answer: whether this town looks expensive to buy relative to what renting in it costs.
A detached house here averages €885/m², against €858 for an apartment.
Compared street for street — houses and flats priced in the same neighborhood — a house costs 3% more per square meter.
OMI prices “Ville e Villini” separately from the apartments every other figure on this page describes. Nationally a house costs about 14% more per square meter, but in 450 comuni it costs less — worth checking rather than assuming.
Seismic zone
Barrea is in seismic zone 1. Of the four zones, zone 1 is the highest hazard and zone 4 the lowest. The Department of Civil Protection describes zone 1 as the highest-hazard zone, where strong earthquakes are likely over the long run.
This is the legal classification the Region gave the comune, used for planning and for control of building works. It is not a forecast, and it says nothing about the building you are looking at: since the 2018 building code the design load of a new building comes from site-specific hazard, not from the zone. Have any specific property checked by a qualified engineer.
Not to be confused with the “seismic” routes of the 7% pensioner regime. Those turn on whether the comune was in the 2009 L’Aquila or 2016–17 central-Italy earthquake areas, not on its zone, and being in zone 1 does not make anyone eligible for that regime, or for any tax treatment.
See every comune on the map →Hospital, airport and daily-needs distance
Nearest hospital: Presidio Ospedaliero Castel di Sangro, about 20.6 km / 20 minutes by road from Barrea (the main town).
Nearest emergency department: Presidio Ospedaliero Castel di Sangro (Pronto Soccorso), about 20.6 km / 20 minutes by road from Barrea (the main town).
Nearest DEA (level I or II): Ospedale Civile S.S.Trinita` N.Sede Sora (DEA level I), about 53.1 km / 47 minutes by road from Barrea (the main town).
Nearest airport: Abruzzo Airport (PSR), about 126.7 km / 99 minutes by road from Barrea (the main town).
Nearest supermarket (OpenStreetMap): MINI Market, about 0.3 km / 1 minute by road from Barrea (the main town).
Nearest pharmacy: Farmacia Di Vito Nicola, about 0.4 km / 1 minute by road from Barrea (the main town).
Nearest railway station (OpenStreetMap): Alfedena-Scontrone, about 11.6 km / 10 minutes by road from Barrea (the main town).
Measured by road from the main town of the comune (its OpenStreetMap place point; the geographic center for the few comuni with none), at free-flow speeds with no traffic. It is approximate. For Barrea, a trip from your own address can take longer or shorter. Drive the route before you rely on it, and ask the local health authority which hospital serves the town. Shops, pharmacies and stations are the nearest to the main town, not to your address.
Nearby comuni
← See Barrea on the interactive map
This page, as data
Every figure above sits behind the page as a value with its source, its date and its coverage attached. Your assistant reads the same record, gaps included.