Discover Sicily : Population

Throughout its history, Sicily has been populated by successive waves of occupation and by the policies of its conquerors. As early as Roman times, it was divided into large agricultural estates, the latifundia, worked by a servile workforce that became and remained a poor peasantry over the centuries. It was relatively densely populated, despite massive emigration of natives to northern Italy, Europe and the New World in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, the flow has dried up and the population has stagnated at just over 5 million, less than 10% of Italy's total. It is the4th most populous region in the country. With a surface area of 25,708 km2, it has a population density of 200 inhabitants/km2, in line with the national average (compared with 120 inhabitants/km² for France). Palermo, Messina and Catania concentrate the population, while medium-sized coastal towns have sprung up, leaving the interior depopulated.

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Historical latifundia

The latifundia, the large agricultural estates that emerged during the Roman Empire, left their mark on the history and human occupation of Sicily, considered the granary of the Roman Empire. Slaves were the island's agricultural workforce. Interrupted under the Muslim occupation, and limited under Norman rule to a thousand or so small rural villages (the "casals"), latifundium became legion again after the reign of Frederick II, right up to the present day. The land belonged to large aristocratic families, the Church and the King. They were densely populated by slave labor. The great landowners resided in Palermo, while the lands were governed by authoritarian foremen called caporati. Landless peasants were largely exploited, and their situation worsened with Italian unification, leading to the emergence of mafias. A major reform in 1950 attempted to put an end to this pernicious system, but the latifundia remained numerous throughout southern Italy, which sank into poverty. Today, immigrants have taken the place of natives in the fields, working under difficult conditions, mainly in the fruit harvest in Sicily.

A land of emigration in the 19th and 20th centuries

Over the past 50 years, Sicily's population has grown only slightly, by around 700,000 people. This is both a small and a large number, when we take into account the drop in the birth rate and the rural exodus (the birth rate used to be high). Because of the extreme poverty inherited from the latifundia tradition , large contingents of the population left every year to make their fortune in northern Italy (mainly in the industrial region of Milan, which was booming in the last century). Around 1.5 million Sicilians went into exile to try their luck in the New World: in Argentina, Venezuela and Australia, but above all in the United States (at the end of the 19th century). Finally, many Sicilians chose Europe, including France. The Sicilian diaspora numbers almost 10 million descendants worldwide! Until the 1980s, Sicily had a demographic balance deficit due to emigration, but a steadily growing population, from 2.4 million in 1860 to 4.8 million in the 1980s. Although emigration is still a worrying problem today, due to the attraction of other towns in the Mezzogiorno (over 10,000 people leave every year), it is less marked and the island's demography has stagnated at 5 million inhabitants, even though the countryside continues to be emptied to the benefit of coastal towns and large conurbations offering more jobs in industry and the tertiary sector.

Palermo, Catania and Messina

Sicily has a rural, rustic image, populated by sleepy villages. Yet three of its cities - Palermo, Catania and Messina - are among Italy's twelve largest in terms of population. The three provincial capitals have populations of 1,250,000, 1,100,000 and 650,000 respectively (including agglomerations), and employ almost 60% of the working population. Syracuse, Marsala, Gela, Ragusa and Trapani follow in order of importance. The population is concentrated mainly on the coast, in a multitude of secondary towns, but also on the island's few plains, such as the Conca d'Oro in Palermo or the Catania plain, where population density can reach 500 inhabitants/km2.

A low birth rate

Italy is suffering from a low birth rate. Like other regions of the Mezzogiorno, Sicily has not escaped this demographic process and the gradual disappearance of mammas and that traditional image of women escorted by a bevy of children. While the birth rate was still 24 ‰ in the 1950s, today it's just 12 ‰, but still higher than the European and especially national average of 7 ‰. There aren't really any more typical first names in Sicily than in the rest of the Peninsula, even if it's generally the great saints who are preferred by mothers: Maria for girls of course, and for boys Marco, Giuseppe, Giovanni, Francesco (known as Ciccio to close friends), but above all Salvatore, which means savior. It's a guarantee of protection for eternity!

An island of migratory transition

For centuries, Sicily has been a melting pot of peoples of different ethnicities and bloodlines: from Greeks to Germans, Romans, Arabs and Normans. Even within the region itself, a homogeneous population can be observed, even if such diverse and distant origins place "Sicilianness" well on the bangs of "Italianness". Since the beginning of the 21st century, with the fall of Gaddafi in Libya, the island has become a transit zone for illegal immigration from sub-Saharan Africa to northern Europe, notably once again the island of Lampedusa, closest to the Tunisian coast from where the boats depart, since the closure of the ports of Pozzallo, Augusta or above all Catania on the main island, decided by Salvini in 2019 and maintained by Meloni since his accession to power in 2022. For ten years or so, Sicily saw between 100,000 and 150,000 migrants a year disembark from Libya, but for many it was no more than a place of passage.

Low immigration

As throughout Italy, the presence of people with an immigrant background is low. In 2022, there were 200,000 immigrants in Sicily, mainly Romanians (60,000), Tunisians (20,000), Moroccans (16,000), and to a lesser extent Sri Lankans (13,500), Albanians (10,000), Bengalis (9,000), Chinese (7,500), Filipinos, Poles and Nigerians (5,000 each). Immigration represents just 4% of the island's population. Firstly, because Italy distributes migrants arriving at the port of Catania or Lampedusa to " campos " located throughout the country. Secondly, because there are very few opportunities for integration (few schools for minors, few jobs for adults). The mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, who goes against the grain of Sicilian politics, welcomes migrants. Another example is the village of Sutera, near Caltanissetta in the island's interior, a ghost town whose population was decimated by the rural exodus. For some years now, mayor Giuseppe Grizzanti has been welcoming migrants in vacant houses, and the village has become a model of integration. The new children have saved the school from closure.

The Italian language

It is indisputable proof of the constant cross-fertilization to which the Italian people have been exposed for centuries. Thus, ragazzo and magazzino (boy and warehouse) are words of Arabic origin, while albergo, banca, guardia or sapone (hotel, bank, guard, soap) 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. Gradually, a language was defined, thanks to the works of authors such as Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch. From the 16th century onwards, the influence of the great Italian states in Europe, and particularly in France, grew. In addition to their role as driving forces behind the Renaissance (many Italian artists came to work in France), these states also interfered in French politics: we're thinking in particular of the Medici, who provided France with two queens (Marie and Catherine), and of men like Concini and Mazarin, who practically arrived in their suitcases. Italy fascinated the great French writers of the time, and borrowings from Italian languages multiplied. Examples include alarme, from alle arme, "to arms", the signal to rush to the armory; banque, from banca, "the bench", i.e. the board on which merchants sat; and escarpin, from scarpino, literally a "little shoe".

The Sicilian language still spoken

Although Italian is the official language of Sicily, you'll find that the islanders speak to each other in Sicilian. In fact, the Sicilian language is made up of Sicilian from Sicily, Salentin from Puglia, Calabrian from Central and Southern Italy and Cilentine from Southern Italy (Campania). Although close to Italian, with which it shares a Roman and Latin base, Sicilian is nonetheless a Romance language in its own right. Proof of this is that it comes in 11 regional dialects! It varies according to whether you're in Palermo, Messina or Agrigento. The fruit of centuries of foreign invasion and domination, Sicilianu has incorporated elements of Greek, Arabic, Catalan, Spanish and French. It has its own grammar, conjugation and vocabulary. Literature in Sicilian appeared in Italy after the decline of Latin in the 13th century, under the aegis of Frederick II and his enlightened court of scientists, philosophers and literary figures. Surprisingly, Sicilian is not taught in schools. Nevertheless, it is estimated that 90% of the population speaks it, mainly with family and friends. If you speak Italian, you'll be able to pick up a wide range of expressions, pronunciations and other accents that are very specific and open (sometimes evoking the influence of Spain or even North Africa), deliciously varied and colorful. Don't hesitate to use local terms in the presence of a Sicilian, as this effort will be much appreciated, even if it's only a few words.

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