The Lombard capital tops Il Sole 24 Ore's quality-of-life survey for the second consecutive year. Caltanissetta brings up the rear, while Rome and Naples climb a few places.
Milan reaffirms its strong standing and tops the rankings produced by the thirtieth edition of Il Sole 24 Ore's survey on quality of life across Italian territories, measured at provincial level. While the Lombard capital's result comes as no surprise, what is worth noting are the "advances" made by the capital Rome and the most important city in the South, Naples. Let's find out what Milan excels at and where it still needs to improve — for instance, air quality.
The Quality of Life survey turns 30 and, for this special 2019 edition, new analytical indicators have been added, all falling within the usual 6 categories: Wealth and consumption, Business and work, Environment and services, Demographics and society, Justice and safety, Culture and leisure. The final rankings make it abundantly clear that, even in this day and age, the country remains divided in two: North and South return markedly different results, with southern Italian cities occupying the lower end of the survey for the most part. Caltanissetta is no stranger to the bottom of the rankings, and neither are Foggia and Crotone. Yet alongside these worrying trends for already troubled parts of the country, some encouraging developments also emerge: Naples gains 13 places to reach 81st — not among the best, certainly, but a clear improvement — as does the regional capital of Sardinia, Cagliari, which moves up 24 places to reach 20th. Bari in Puglia also climbs 10 positions, reaching 67th. Among the more unusual notes, Parma, Italy's 2020 Capital of Culture, gains tenth place and thus enters the top ten, while Bologna drops to 14th, ceding its regional crown to the aforementioned city.
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The most virtuous cities, meanwhile, are those located far to the north, some of which are classified as alpine: after Milan come Bolzano, Trento, Aosta, Trieste, Monza e Brianza, Verona, Treviso and Venice.
Milan is in first place in these rankings, but it does not lead in every category examined. Let us start with the ones closest to our hearts here at LifeGate: unfortunately, the Lombard capital ranks only 94th for air quality; the average concentration of PM10 is 32.5 micrograms (Legambiente-Ecosistema urbano data). As for separate waste collection, it sits at only 54th place, and on this point it is worth noting that per capita waste production in the area stands at 504.3 kilograms per year, placing Milan 44th in the sub-category "Waste production". Performance in the "Justice and safety" category is also very poor — Milan's weakest area overall.
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What does it lead in? In "Business and work" it comes first, and it is pleasing to note, for example, that the indicator for legally resident immigrants shows that the majority of foreign residents in the city hold regular status. Likewise, there are many innovative start-ups and foreign-owned businesses, and youth entrepreneurship in general is on the rise. "Wealth and consumption" is, true to form, another area in which Milan sets the standard for the whole country, and one indicator illustrates this clearly: the per capita income of taxpayers is the highest in Italy, approaching €29,000 in a single year.
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It is also heartening to learn that for "Culture and leisure" Milan ranks third in Italy: this means that people in the city earn — and therefore spend — more than elsewhere, and they do so in the cultural sphere too, thanks to an offering that is not only widespread but of quality. Perhaps, though, there are too few libraries relative to the population, and the same goes for bookshops; cinema screens also score poorly in the data — a sign that there are ever fewer of them, which is a shame.