A predominantly urban population
In 1981, Italy had 56.5 million inhabitants, 56.8 million in 1992 and just over 60 million in 2021. Italy remains a densely populated country (201 inhabitants/km²), but there are considerable contrasts between rural and urban areas. The example of Lombardy, with a population of 9,028,913 and a density of 379 inh./km², contrasts with the national figures. Finally, it should be pointed out that 70% of Italy's population is urban, and that the Italian urban network is made up of a very large number of small towns.
With 1,354,196 inhabitants (January 2023), the Milan conurbation is the largest after Rome (with around 4 million inhabitants), and is one of only four Italian cities with more than one million inhabitants.
A land of immigration
In the 1960s, Italy experienced its economic miracle. Until the financial crisis of 2008, the annual growth rate was 6%, and unemployment in the north was virtually non-existent. However, the situation remained serious in the South, and the gap between the two zones has only widened since. The inhabitants of southern Italy decided to board the treno del sole (the train of the sun) and settle in the north, in the "industrial triangle" formed by Turin, Genoa and Milan. From the post-war years onwards, Calabrians, Sicilians and Neapolitans from Rome settled mainly in the two major industrialized cities of the north, Turin and Milan.
Milan remains a land of immigration to this day. From the 1980s and especially during the 1990s, it became one of the European cities favored by "non-EU" emigration, as the Italians define it. In 2021, there will be 6.3 million immigrants, or 10.6% of the Italian population (a figure that is rising); the most represented community is Moroccan, followed by Albanian and Filipino. As with the southern Italians of the 1960s, integration is not easy, but Milan has learned to welcome and respect the most diverse cultures, and the pressing need for labor makes this task easier. The recent migration crisis has brought in many West Africans and Asians (Afghans, Syrians...).
The Italian language
The Italian language is indisputable proof of the constant cross-fertilization to which the Italian people have been exposed for centuries. Thus, ragazzo and magazzino are words of Arabic origin, while albergo, banca, guardia or sapone are of Germanic origin. Charles V joked that we speak to God in Spanish, to men in French and to women in... Italian! Italian is indeed one of the most melodious of Latin languages. It only came into being as a literary idiom in the 12th century, as the Italian aristocracy and writers had long preferred to speak Latin, Provençal or French. This evolution was gradual: at the end of the 13th century, Marco Polo wrote his famous Il Milione in Franco-Venetian. Little by little, a language was defined by the works of authors such as Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch.
Since Italian unity was not achieved until 1861, there is a wide variety of dialects. With the standardization of education, television and radio, dialects are gradually losing their importance, but remain an essential cultural and historical reference for understanding Italy. Lombard and Venetian are increasingly vulnerable, eclipsed over the last thirty years by Italian.
