All things you need to know about living in Montalbano Jonico
Montalbano Jonico, in the province of Matera, is home to 20 Britons: 0.31% of its 6,555 residents.
That is the 179th-highest concentration of Britons among the 5,872 Italian comuni with at least 1,000 residents.
Within Basilicata it ranks 1st.
ISTAT counts 423 residents with a foreign citizenship in Montalbano Jonico, 6.45% of the population. The largest groups among the nationalities we follow most closely are Britons (20), Brazilians (4), French nationals (3).
Montalbano Jonico 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 33.4°C (92°F) and winters a low of 4.9°C (41°F), measured over 2015 to 2024.
Montalbano Jonico sees about 73 days a year above 30°C (86°F).
It gets about 549mm of rain a year, spread across roughly 77 days.
These come from ERA5-Land reanalysis at the comune itself, not from the nearest weather station.
OMI puts residential purchase prices in Montalbano Jonico at about €588 per square meter in the second half of 2025.
Montalbano Jonico population over time
By nationality
| Nationality | Citizens | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Romania | 128 | 1.95% |
| Albania | 106 | 1.62% |
| United Kingdom | 20 | 0.31% |
| Ukraine | 12 | 0.18% |
| Poland | 5 | 0.08% |
| Brazil | 4 | 0.06% |
| France | 3 | 0.05% |
| Latvia | 3 | 0.05% |
| Spain | 2 | 0.03% |
| Argentina | 1 | 0.02% |
| Bulgaria | 1 | 0.02% |
| Germany | 1 | 0.02% |
| United States | 1 | 0.02% |
| Venezuela | 1 | 0.02% |
| Austria | 0 | 0.00% |
| Australia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Belgium | 0 | 0.00% |
| Canada | 0 | 0.00% |
| Switzerland | 0 | 0.00% |
| Cyprus | 0 | 0.00% |
| Czechia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Denmark | 0 | 0.00% |
| Estonia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Finland | 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% |
| 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% |
Country of birth
| Group | Residents | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Born in Italy | 6,101 | 93.07% |
| Born elsewhere in the EU | 171 | 2.61% |
| Born outside the EU | 283 | 4.32% |
Britons over time
Quality of life in Matera
Full BES profile for Matera →Matera on cost vs quality of life (province-level) →
Tax regimes
Montalbano Jonico 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 Montalbano Jonico is well below the Matera average of €1,099/m². Averaged across 5 OMI micro-zones, which can differ substantially within the same town.
28.3 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
Montalbano Jonico is in seismic zone 3 (the Region labels it 3b). 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 23.2 km / 23 minutes by road from Montalbano Jonico (the main town).
Nearest emergency department: PSA Policoro (Pronto Soccorso), about 23.2 km / 23 minutes by road from Montalbano Jonico (the main town).
Nearest DEA (level I or II): Presidio Ospedaliero -Matera- (DEA level I), about 65.3 km / 56 minutes by road from Montalbano Jonico (the main town).
Nearest airport: Bari Karol Wojtyła International Airport (BRI), about 158.3 km / 104 minutes by road from Montalbano Jonico (the main town).
Nearest supermarket (OpenStreetMap): Supermercato Pick Up, about 0.4 km / 1 minute by road from Montalbano Jonico (the main town).
Nearest pharmacy: Farmacia Torraco Giuseppe, about 0.7 km / 2 minutes by road from Montalbano Jonico (the main town).
Nearest railway station (OpenStreetMap): Scanzano Jonico-Montalbano Jonico, about 14.1 km / 18 minutes by road from Montalbano Jonico (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 Montalbano Jonico, 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 Montalbano Jonico on the interactive map
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