Population and Territory
With a density of 190 inhab./sq.km., Italy is one of the most heavily populated countries in Europe after Benelux, the German Federal Republic and Great Britain. This figure, however, does not necessarily reveal the territorial distribution of population, and, in fact, of 95 provinces, only 40 have a density higher than the national average, with 70% of total population on a surface area equal to one third of the entire territory. This indicates that the territorial distribution of the population is somewhat heterogeneous. In reality, the most heavily populated areas are the Po-Veneto plains and other inland and peripherical low-lying areas (particularly Valdarno and the Campana plain) as well as the areas round the large cities (Rome) and the coastal belts. Many other areas, not necessarily mountainous or difficult to reach, are still underpopulated.

This irregular distribution appears to be a direct consequence of the strong attraction exerted over the last few decades by small and medium-sized urban centres. Almost 30% of the population of Italy is concentrated in c. 50 centres with over 100,000 inhabitants, and the overall urban population amounts to roughly two thirds of that total. The rural population which, at the beginning of the last World War, accounted for practically half the country's population, has been gradually declining with the massive increase in urbanization and drift from the countryside, influenced by the urban way of life which has levelled what were once marked differences between town and country.

Nonetheless, along with new types of community life, traditional forms of the rural community are still found, particularly where urbanization has scant influence, and these help to give the countryside its typically Italian landscapes, reflecting the classi cal dualism of scattered village and urban centre. The former is prevalently found in Central and Northeast Italy, where it is associated with fragmentation of farms and the mixed crop system, while the latter is generally predominant in the areas of large-scale cultivation, where farms are commonly high acreage and where environmental difficulties are accentuated, ie. in the mountains or in areas with few resources. A direct consequence of the development of the Italian economy in the inter-war period, and particularly in the years after the Second World War, is the expansion of urban centres, whose flourishing development in the days of the Comuni and Signorie had since been considerably limited.

The extent of urbanization is now close to that of the economically advanced European countries, though there is still an imbalance in the distribution of urban centres throughout the regions, especially in the north, centre and south of the country, itself the result of varying degrees of economic development in the single regions.

Without taking into account the negative effects of the physical environment in the heart of the country as well as along the coasts, the principal clustering of urban centres is found to correspond with the areas of highest population density, ie. the Po-Veneto plains (especially at the foot of the Alps and Apennines, in certain large inland valleys, such as the Adige Valley, and round Milan and Turin, the two great metropolises), the Arno valley and plain, the Ligurian littoral and the upper Adriatic coast (except for the Po delta), forming a fairly homogeneous continuous urban pattern. In Southern and Central Italy, the urban network appears less articulated, especially in Latium and Campania, where the metropolitan areas of Rome and Naples constitute the principal poles of aggregation. The distribution of urban centres in Puglia and Sicily, however, appears to be less irregular.