All things you need to know about living in Craco
Craco, in the province of Matera, is home to 1 Germans: 0.17% of its 587 residents.
ISTAT counts 35 residents with a foreign citizenship in Craco, 5.96% of the population. Among the nationalities we follow most closely, the two groups are Germans (1) and Americans (1).
Craco qualifies for the 7% pensioner regime.
On ISTAT's well-being measures, the province of Matera scores in the top quarter of Italian provinces for PM10 Annual average concentration and burglaries reported.
It scores in the bottom quarter for medical specialists and hospital beds in high-care wards.
These figures describe the province, not the town. A comune can sit some way from its province's average.
Summers average a high of 33.5°C (92°F) and winters a low of 2.4°C (36°F), measured over 2015 to 2024.
Craco sees about 73 days a year above 30°C (86°F).
It gets about 603mm of rain a year, spread across roughly 92 days.
These come from ERA5-Land reanalysis at the comune itself, not from the nearest weather station.
OMI puts residential purchase prices in Craco at about €525 per square meter in the second half of 2025.
At those figures, buying costs about 25 years of renting the same property.
That is below most Italian comuni.
Craco population over time
By nationality
| Nationality | Citizens | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Romania | 10 | 1.70% |
| Bulgaria | 6 | 1.02% |
| Albania | 4 | 0.68% |
| Ukraine | 3 | 0.51% |
| Czechia | 1 | 0.17% |
| Germany | 1 | 0.17% |
| United States | 1 | 0.17% |
| 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% |
| 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% |
| Poland | 0 | 0.00% |
| Portugal | 0 | 0.00% |
| Russia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Sweden | 0 | 0.00% |
| Slovenia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Slovakia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Venezuela | 0 | 0.00% |
Country of birth
| Group | Residents | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Born in Italy | 538 | 91.65% |
| Born elsewhere in the EU | 31 | 5.28% |
| Born outside the EU | 18 | 3.07% |
Germans over time
Quality of life in Matera
Full BES profile for Matera →Matera on cost vs quality of life (province-level) →
Tax regimes
Craco 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 Craco is far below the Matera average of €1,099/m². Averaged across 2 OMI micro-zones, which can differ substantially within the same town.
25 years of rent here equal the purchase price — 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.
Seismic zone
Craco is in seismic zone 3 (the Region labels it 3a). Of the four zones, zone 1 is the highest hazard and zone 4 the lowest. The Department of Civil Protection describes zone 3 as a zone where strong earthquakes are less likely than in zones 1 and 2.
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: PSA Policoro, about 37.5 km / 33 minutes by road from the geographic center of the comune.
Nearest emergency department: PSA Policoro (Pronto Soccorso), about 37.5 km / 33 minutes by road from the geographic center of the comune.
Nearest DEA (level I or II): Presidio Ospedaliero -Matera- (DEA level I), about 54.4 km / 46 minutes by road from the geographic center of the comune.
Nearest airport: Bari Karol Wojtyła International Airport (BRI), about 116.3 km / 92 minutes by road from the geographic center of the comune.
Nearest supermarket (OpenStreetMap): Qui Discount, about 17 km / 16 minutes by road from the geographic center of the comune.
Nearest pharmacy: Farmacia Strammiello Maria, about 0 km / 1 minute by road from the geographic center of the comune.
Nearest railway station (OpenStreetMap): Pisticci, about 15.9 km / 14 minutes by road from the geographic center of the comune.
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 Craco, 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 Craco on the interactive map
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