Regions of Italy

The regions of Italy (Italian: Regioni) are the first-level constituent entities of the Italian Republic, constituting its second NUTS administrative level.[1] There are 20 regions, of which five have a broader amount of autonomy than the other 15 regions. Under the Italian Constitution, each region is an autonomous entity with defined powers. With the exception of the Aosta Valley, each region is divided into a number of provinces.

Regions Regioni  (Italian)
Apulia Basilicata Calabria Sicily Molise Campania Abruzzo Lazio Umbria Marche Tuscany Sardinia Emilia-Romagna Liguria Piedmont Friuli- Venezia Giulia Aosta Valley Trentino- Alto Adige Veneto Lombardy Adriatic Sea Ionian Sea Mediterranean Sea Tyrrhenian Sea Ligurian Sea
Category	Unitary state
Location	Italian Republic
Number	20
Populations	125,666 (Aosta Valley) – 10,060,574 (Lombardy)
Areas	3,261 km^2 (1,259 sq mi) (Aosta Valley) – 25,832 km^2 (9,974 sq mi) (Sicily)
Government	Regional Government, National Government
Subdivisions	Province

History

During the Kingdom of Italy, regions were administrative districts of the central state. Under the Republic, they were granted a measure of political autonomy by the 1948 Italian Constitution. The original draft list comprised the Salento region (which was eventually included in the Apulia). Friuli and Venezia Giulia were separate regions, and Basilicata was named Lucania. Abruzzo and Molise were identified as separate regions in the first draft. They were later merged into Abruzzo e Molise in the final constitution of 1948. They were separated in 1963.

Implementation of regional autonomy was postponed until the first Regional elections of 1970. The ruling Christian Democracy party did not want the opposition Italian Communist Party to gain power in the regions where it was historically rooted (the red belt of Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria and the Marches).

Regions acquired a significant level of autonomy following a constitutional reform in 2001 (brought about by a centre-left government and confirmed by popular referendum), which granted them residual policy competence. A further federalist reform was proposed by the regionalist party Lega Nord and in 2005, the centre-right government led by Silvio Berlusconi proposed a new reform that would have greatly increased the power of regions.[2]

The proposals, which had been particularly associated with Lega Nord, and seen by some as leading the way to a federal state, were rejected in the 2006 Italian constitutional referendum by 61.7% to 38.3%.[2] The results varied considerably among the regions, ranging from 55.3% in favor in Veneto to 82% against in Calabria.[2]

Regional administration

Regions colored by the winning coalition (as of January 2020)

Number of regions governed by each coalition since 1995:

  Centre-left

  Centre-right

  Others

Regions

Flag	Region Italian name (if different)	Status	Population[3] January 2019		Area		Pop. density	HDI[4]	Capital	President		Number of comuni[5]	Prov. or metrop. cities
			Number	%	km²	%
	Abruzzo	Ordinary	1,311,580	2.17%	10,832	3.59%	121	0.890	L'Aquila		Marco Marsilio Brothers of Italy	305	4
	Aosta Valley Valle d'Aosta	Autonomous	125,666	0.21%	3,261	1.08%	39	0.878	Aosta		Antonio Fosson For Our Valley	74	1
	Apulia Puglia	Ordinary	4,029,053	6.68%	19,541	6.48%	206	0.852	Bari		Michele Emiliano Democratic Party	258	6
	Basilicata	Ordinary	562,869	0.93%	10,073	3.34%	56	0.857	Potenza		Vito Bardi Forza Italia	131	2
	Calabria	Ordinary	1,947,131	3.23%	15,222	5.04%	128	0.850	Catanzaro		Jole Santelli Forza Italia	404	5
	Campania	Ordinary	5,801,692	9.61%	13,671	4.53%	424	0.847	Naples		Vincenzo De Luca Democratic Party	550	5
	Emilia-Romagna	Ordinary	4,459,477	7.39%	22,453	7.44%	199	0.915	Bologna		Stefano Bonaccini Democratic Party	328	9
	Friuli Venezia Giulia	Autonomous	1,215,220	2.01%	7,924	2.63%	153	0.898	Trieste		Massimiliano Fedriga League	215	4
	Lazio	Ordinary	5,879,082	9.74%	17,232	5.71%	341	0.909	Rome		Nicola Zingaretti Democratic Party	378	5
	Liguria	Ordinary	1,550,640	2.57%	5,416	1.79%	286	0.896	Genoa		Giovanni Toti Cambiamo!	234	4
	Lombardy Lombardia	Ordinary	10,060,574	16.67%	23,864	7.91%	422	0.907	Milan		Attilio Fontana League	1,509	12
	Marche	Ordinary	1,525,271	2.53%	9,401	3.12%	162	0.896	Ancona		Luca Ceriscioli Democratic Party	228	5
	Molise	Ordinary	305,617	0.51%	4,461	1.48%	69	0.867	Campobasso		Donato Toma Forza Italia	136	2
	Piedmont Piemonte	Ordinary	4,356,406	7.22%	25,387	8.41%	172	0.892	Turin		Alberto Cirio Forza Italia	1,182	8
	Sardinia Sardegna	Autonomous	1,639,591	2.72%	24,100	7.99%	68	0.863	Cagliari		Christian Solinas Sardinian Action Party	377	5
	Sicily Sicilia	Autonomous	4,999,891	8.28%	25,832	8.56%	194	0.845	Palermo		Nello Musumeci Diventerà Bellissima	390	9
	Trentino-South Tyrol Trentino-Alto Adige	Autonomous	1,072,276	1.78%	13,606	4.51%	79	0.919	Trento		Arno Kompatscher South Tyrolean People's Party	291	2
	Tuscany Toscana	Ordinary	3,729,641	6.18%	22,987	7.62%	162	0.903	Florence		Enrico Rossi Democratic Party	273	10
	Umbria	Ordinary	882,015	1.46%	8,464	2.81%	104	0.889	Perugia		Donatella Tesei League	92	2
	Veneto	Ordinary	4,905,854	8.13%	18,020	5.97%	267	0.896	Venice		Luca Zaia League	571	7
	Italy Italia	—	60,359,546	100.00%	301,747	100.00%	200	0.887	Rome		Sergio Mattarella Independent	7,926	107

Macroregions

Macroregions are the first-level NUTS of the European Union.^(it)

Map	Macroregion Italian name	Regions	Major city	Population January 2019		Area (km²)		Population density (km^−2)
				Number	%	km²	%
	North-West Nord-Ovest	Aosta Valley Liguria Lombardy Piedmont	Milan	16,093,286	26.66%	57,928	19.18%	278
	North-East Nord-Est	Emilia-Romagna Friuli-Venezia Giulia Trentino-South Tyrol Veneto	Bologna	11,652,827	19.31%	62,003	20.63%	187
	Centre Centro	Lazio Marche Tuscany Umbria	Rome	12,016,009	19.91%	58,085	19.23%	208
	South Sud	Abruzzo Apulia Basilicata Calabria Campania Molise	Naples	13,957,942	23.12%	73,800	24.43%	191
	Islands Isole or Insulare (adj)	Sardinia Sicily	Palermo	6,639,482	11.00%	49,932	16.53%	135

Status

Every region has a statute that serves as a regional constitution, determining the form of government and the fundamental principles of the organization and the functioning of the region, as prescribed by the Constitution of Italy (Article 123). Although all the regions except Tuscany define themselves in various ways as an "autonomous Region" in the first article of their Statutes,[6] fifteen regions have ordinary statutes and five have special statutes, granting them extended autonomy.

Regions with ordinary statute

These regions, whose statutes are approved by their regional councils, were created in 1970, even though the Italian Constitution dates back to 1948. Since the constitutional reform of 2001 they have had residual legislative powers. The regions have exclusive legislative power with respect to any matters not expressly reserved to state law (Article 117).[7] Yet their financial autonomy is quite modest: they just keep 20% of all levied taxes, mostly used to finance the region-based healthcare system.[8]

Autonomous regions with special statute

Autonomous regions

Article 116 of the Italian Constitution grants home rule to five regions, namely Sardinia, Sicily, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Aosta Valley and Friuli Venezia Giulia, allowing them some legislative, administrative and financial power to a varying extent, depending on their specific statute. These regions became autonomous in order to take into account cultural differences and protect linguistic minorities. Moreover, the government wanted to prevent their secession from Italy after the Second World War.[9]

Institutions

Each region has an elected parliament, called Consiglio Regionale (regional council), or Assemblea Regionale (regional assembly) in Sicily, and a government called Giunta Regionale (regional committee), headed by a governor called Presidente della Giunta Regionale (president of the regional committee) or Presidente della Regione (regional president). The latter is directly elected by the citizens of each region, with the exceptions of Aosta Valley and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol regions where the president is chosen by the regional council.

Under the 1995 electoral law, the winning coalition receives an absolute majority of seats on the council. The president chairs the giunta, and nominates or dismisses its members, called assessori. If the directly elected president resigns, new elections are called immediately.

In the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region, the regional council is made up of the joint session of the two provincial councils of Trentino and of South Tyrol. The regional president is one of the two provincial commissioners.

Representation in the Senate

Number of senators currently assigned to each Region.

Article 57 of the Constitution of Italy establishes that the Senate of the Italian Republic is elected on a regional basis (excluding 6 senators elected by Italians residing abroad and a small number of senators for life) by Italian citizens aged 25 or older.

The 309 senators are assigned to each region proportionally according to their population. However, Article 57 of the Constitution provides that no region can have fewer than seven senators representing it, except for the Aosta Valley (which has one) and Molise (which has two).

Region	Seats[10]	Region	Seats	Region	Seats
Abruzzo	7	Friuli-Venezia Giulia	7	Sardinia	8
Aosta Valley	1	Lazio	28	Sicily	25
Apulia	20	Liguria	8	Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol	7
Basilicata	7	Lombardy	49	Tuscany	18
Calabria	10	Marche	8	Umbria	7
Campania	29	Molise	2	Veneto	24
Emilia-Romagna	22	Piedmont	22	Overseas constituencies	6

Economy of regions and macroregions

Flag	Name	GDP 2011, million EUR[11]	GDP per capita 2011, EUR[11]	GDP 2011, million PPS[11]	GDP per capita 2011, PPS[11]
	Abruzzo	30,073	22,400	29,438	21,900
	Aosta Valley	4,328	33,700	4,236	33,000
	Apulia	69,974	17,100	68,496	16,700
	Basilicata	10,744	18,300	10,517	17,900
	Calabria	33,055	16,400	32,357	16,100
	Campania	93,635	16,000	91,658	15,700
	Emilia-Romagna	142,609	32,100	139,597	31,400
	Friuli-Venezia Giulia	36,628	29,600	35,855	29,000
	Lazio	172,246	29,900	168,609	29,300
	Liguria	43,998	27,200	43,069	26,700
	Lombardy	337,161	33,900	330,042	33,200
	Marche	40,877	26,100	40,014	25,500
	Molise	6,414	20,100	6,278	19,700
	Piedmont	125,997	28,200	123,336	27,600
	Sardinia	33,075	19,700	32,377	19,300
	Sicily	83,956	16,600	82,183	16,300
	Trentino-Alto Adige	35,797	34,450	35,041	33,700
	Tuscany	106,013	28,200	103,775	27,600
	Umbria	21,533	23,700	21,078	23,200
	Veneto	149,527	30,200	146,369	29,600

Code	Name	GDP 2011, million EUR[11]	GDP per capita 2011, EUR[11]	GDP 2011, million PPS[11]	GDP per capita 2011, PPS[11]
ITE	Centre	340,669	28,400	333,475	27,800
ITD	North-East	364,560	31,200	356,862	30,600
ITC	North-West	511,484	31,700	500,683	31,000
ITG	Islands	117,031	17,400	114,560	17,000
ITF	South	243,895	17,200	238,744	16,800
-	Extra-regio	2,771	–	2,712	–

See also

• Italian NUTS level 1 regions
• Regional Council (Italy)
• Presidents of Regions of Italy
• List of Italian regions by GDP
• List of Italian regions by GRP per capita
• List of Italian regions by Human Development Index
• Flags of regions of Italy
• ISO 3166-2:IT

Other administrative divisions

• Provinces of Italy
• Municipalities of Italy

References

1. "National structures". Eurostat. Archived from the original on 13 July 2014. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
2. "Speciale Referendum 2006". la Repubblica. 26 June 2006. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
3. "Population Italian Regions". tuttitalia.it.
4. "Sub-national HDI - Area Database - Global Data Lab". hdi.globaldatalab.org.
5. "Italian Comuni". tuttitalia.it.
6. Pinto, Luciano Torrente-Paolo Strazzullo-Roberto. "Statuti Regionali - Casa Editrice: Edizioni Simone". www.simone.it.
7. LL.M., Prof. Dr. Axel Tschentscher. "ICL - Italy - Constitution". servat.unibe.ch.
8. Report RAI - Le regioni a statuto speciale (Italian), retrieved 21st Jan 2009 Archived 2009-03-22 at the Wayback Machine,
9. Hiroko Kudo, “Autonomy and Managerial Innovation in Italian Regions after Constitutional Reform”, Chuo University, Faculty of Law and Graduate School of Public Policy (2008): p. 1. Retrieved on April 6, 2012 from http://www.med-eu.org/proceedings/MED1/Kudo.pdf Archived 2015-11-17 at the Wayback Machine.
10. "senato.it - XVII Legislatura - Senatori eletti nella regione Piemonte". www.senato.it.
11. "GDP per capita in the EU in 2011" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-03-07.

External links

• CityMayors article
• Regional Governments of Italy on Italia.gov.it
• Regional Governments of Italy on Governo.it