Geographical distribution
In 2020, the island of Elba has 31,904 inhabitants, which represents 95% of the total population of the Tuscan archipelago, and a density of 143 inhabitants per square kilometer (source: Istat). In the summer, with the large influx of tourists, the numbers rise to nearly 300,000 people!
In general, the province of Livorno has a rather low foreign presence, much lower than most Tuscan provinces. On the island of Elba, there are 1,852 resident foreigners, which is exactly 6% of the population.
The islanders are distributed among eight communes, all belonging to the province of Livorno, in Tuscany. Each of these communes has its own town hall, with the corresponding deputies and councillors, which regularly raises the debate about the administrative costs of such a division. The largest municipality of Elba, and the most populous, is that of Portoferraio, with 12,005 residents (the Ferraiesi), followed by Campo nell'Elba, with 4,842 residents (the Campesi). The Capoliveresi of Capoliveri are 4,086, and the residents of Porto Azzurro, 3,665 (the Portoazzurrini). A few kilometers from each other, Marciana Marina and Marciana count 1,953 Marinesi and 2,102 Marcianesi. Finally, on the eastern side of Elba, the Riesi of Rio Marina are 2,122 and those of Rio nell'Elba, 1,129, making it the smallest municipality on the island.
This large number of municipalities, spread over a small territory of 224 square kilometers, reminds us that, until recently, the island of Elba was a set of villages extremely different and disconnected from each other, to the point of developing completely different customs and economies over time. For example, located only a few kilometers away, the villages of San Piero in Campo and Marciana based their lives on very different economies. The extraction of granite for the first. Wood and pastoralism for the second, immersed in a mountainous area rich in chestnut trees. In this sense, we can also evoke the very different destinies of Rio Marina, a land of miners, Porto Azzurro, a Spanish outpost, and Portoferraio, a city-principality that welcomed Cosimo de Medici and Napoleon, among others.Language and linguistic specificities of the island of Elba
The official language of the island of Elba is, of course, Italian. Charles V used to say: "We speak to God in Spanish, to men in French, to horses in German, and to women in Italian! ». The capital, Portoferraio, and its immediate surroundings make up the most Tuscan part of the island. You will notice, however, that the island language is less vocal than on the mainland. Some idioms and proverbs borrowed from the sailing world are interesting to point out, such as "the broken keel"(chiglia spezzata) to define a person suffering from back pain, or "you are a sailing boat"(sei una barca a torzo) to say that the person is a weather vane!
On the eastern side of the island, which includes the cities of Rio nell'Elba, Rio Marina, Porto Azzurro and Capoliveri, the language varied but had one thing in common, that of replacing the C with the G (ginque instead of cinque
for example). The dialect of this region is curiously similar to that of some villages on the Maremma coast in Tuscany. The mine, at the centre of the history of this people, has produced its own terminology, assimilated into daily life today. The Capanne massif, in the west of the island, is the region that has experienced the least migratory flows, which has allowed the persistence of linguistic forms to the present day.
