Italian citizens living abroad 2022, by country

Argentina has the largest Italian population outside of Italy, with around 1.1 million Italians residing in the South American country as of 2022. This community represented almost one fifth of all citizens residing outside the Republic, 6.7 million. Germany hosted the second-largest community, with about 880,000 Italians, while in Brazil lived around 730,000 people with Italian citizenship. In total, 2.9 million Italians resided in the Americas, whereas 3.4 million in other European countries. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Argentina was one of the main destinations for Italian emigrants, in particular in the early 1900s.

Increasing tendency to emigrate

  Between 2006 and 2020, the number of Italians living abroad constantly increased. As of 2020, over five million Italians lived outside their homeland. Data related to the educational level of the emigrated population show that one third of the academics decided to leave the country. In 2017, 32.5 percent of Italians holding a university degree did not reside in Italy.

Better jobs and lower taxes

  When asked about the reasons why leaving their country, the opportunity to pay lower taxes and have better jobs played an important role. Indeed, about 43 percent of Italians declared to be ready to leave Italy for a place where taxes were lower. In addition, roughly 37 percent could leave Italy for better working chances.