The Italian Cities with Best Quality of Life

Bolzano, in the northern region of Trentino-Alto Adige, is the Italian city with the best quality of life for 2017, according to a research carried out by the Department of Social and Economic Sciences of Rome’s La Sapienza University and published on the newspaper Italia Oggi.

The annual research, now in its 19^th year, points out how the gap between a wealthier northern Italy and a poorer southern Italy has shrunk in 2017; what makes the difference in quality of life, it seems, is the size of urban centers. Smaller towns across the boot score higher positions than big cities, which have all lost positions, with one big exception, Rome, which instead rose from 88^th to 67^th. Trapani in Sicily is the city with the worst quality of life, and Naples isn’t much higher in the rank, being in the third to last place.

As for the cities with the best quality of life, the Alpine provinces dominate: after Bolzano comes Trento, also located in Trentino-Alto Adige, followed by Belluno in Veneto, near the Dolomites. Mantua, which was first last year, ranks 8^th in 2017. Vicenza, Lecco, Treviso, Parma, Pordenone and Udine, all mid-size towns, all in northern Italy, also feature in the top ten. Potenza (Basilicata) is the first of southern Italian cities to appear in the classification (44^th).

Overall, 56 out of 110 Italian cities have a good or acceptable quality of life, according to the research. Taking into consideration macro-areas, it looks like there has been a slight decline in north-central Italy and a slight improvement in southern Italy, although the quality of life there is still considered unsatisfactory; the North-East and central Italy fare better than the North-West.

The research has examined 9 factors: business and job opportunities, environment, crime, social and personal distress, population, financial and academic services, health services, leisure time and standard of living.

Incidentally, Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper also published a similar research where Belluno ranked first. 

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