All things you need to know about living in Rapolla
Rapolla, in the province of Potenza, is home to 1 Spaniards: 0.02% of its 4,116 residents.
That is the 2610th-highest concentration of Spaniards among the 5,872 Italian comuni with at least 1,000 residents.
Within Basilicata it ranks 20th.
ISTAT counts 104 residents with a foreign citizenship in Rapolla, 2.53% of the population. Among the nationalities we follow most closely, the two groups are Spaniards (1) and Russians (1).
Rapolla qualifies for the 7% pensioner regime.
On ISTAT's well-being measures, the province of Potenza scores in the top quarter of Italian provinces for urban green and electricity from renewable sources.
It scores in the bottom quarter for density and importance of museums' heritage and average disposable income per capita.
These figures describe the province, not the town. A comune can sit some way from its province's average.
Summers average a high of 32.4°C (90°F) and winters a low of 2.3°C (36°F), measured over 2015 to 2024.
Rapolla sees about 61 days a year above 30°C (86°F).
It gets about 689mm of rain a year, spread across roughly 111 days.
These come from ERA5-Land reanalysis at the comune itself, not from the nearest weather station.
OMI puts residential purchase prices in Rapolla at about €492 per square meter in the second half of 2025.
Rapolla population over time
By nationality
| Nationality | Citizens | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Romania | 23 | 0.56% |
| Albania | 11 | 0.27% |
| Ukraine | 10 | 0.24% |
| Poland | 2 | 0.05% |
| Bulgaria | 1 | 0.02% |
| Spain | 1 | 0.02% |
| Russia | 1 | 0.02% |
| 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% |
| 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% |
| Sweden | 0 | 0.00% |
| Slovenia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Slovakia | 0 | 0.00% |
| United States | 0 | 0.00% |
| Venezuela | 0 | 0.00% |
Country of birth
| Group | Residents | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Born in Italy | 3,898 | 94.70% |
| Born elsewhere in the EU | 98 | 2.38% |
| Born outside the EU | 120 | 2.92% |
Spaniards over time
Quality of life in Potenza
Full BES profile for Potenza →Potenza on cost vs quality of life (province-level) →
Tax regimes
Rapolla 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 Rapolla is well below the Potenza average of €665/m². Averaged across 3 OMI micro-zones, which can differ substantially within the same town.
23.1 years of rent here equal the purchase price, close to 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.
Housing here in excellent condition costs 21% more than ordinary condition — €593/m² against €492.
That gap is what the market charges for a place you don’t have to work on. It is not what the work would cost you — OMI prices property, not builders.
Seismic zone
Rapolla is in seismic zone 2 (the Region labels it 2b). Of the four zones, zone 1 is the highest hazard and zone 4 the lowest. The Department of Civil Protection describes zone 2 as a zone where strong earthquakes are possible.
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: Ospedale S.Giovanni di Dio - Melfi, about 5.9 km / 7 minutes by road from Rapolla (the main town).
Nearest emergency department: Ospedale S.Giovanni di Dio - Melfi (Pronto Soccorso), about 5.9 km / 7 minutes by road from Rapolla (the main town).
Nearest DEA (level I or II): Ospedale San Carlo di Potenza (DEA level II), about 47.1 km / 35 minutes by road from Rapolla (the main town).
Nearest airport: Foggia Gino Lisa Airport (FOG), about 60.7 km / 43 minutes by road from Rapolla (the main town).
Nearest supermarket (OpenStreetMap): dok Supermercati, about 0.1 km / 1 minute by road from Rapolla (the main town).
Nearest pharmacy: Farmacia Eredi di Bia Loredana S.D.F., about 0.5 km / 1 minute by road from Rapolla (the main town).
Nearest railway station (OpenStreetMap): Melfi, about 5.2 km / 6 minutes by road from Rapolla (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 Rapolla, 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 Rapolla on the interactive map
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