Milan confirms itself at the top of the quality of life ranking in Italy. According to the 2025 survey of ItaliaOggi–Ital Communications and La Sapienza University, the Lombard capital surpasses Bolzano and Bologna. At the bottom of the ranking, however, is Caltanissetta. To draw up the ranking, various criteria are taken into consideration including work, health, tourism, education and safety.
The 2025 quality of life survey in Italy
Every year ItaliaOggi – Ital Communications, in collaboration with La Sapienza University of Rome, analyzes the quality of life in all 107 Italian provinces. The survey is based on 92 indicators, grouped into nine large areas, which evaluate where people live best based on:
- Work
- Environment
- Instruction
- Population
- Crimes
- Safety
- Income
- Health
- Tourism
The classification method is simple: the province with the best overall performance is assigned 1000 points, while the worst one 0 points. Based on the score achieved, the provinces are then divided into four quality of life bands: Good, Acceptable, Fair, Insufficient.
Compared to 2024, the national average has dropped by 30 points and the data tells us that only 60 provinces fall into the good or acceptable ranges: it means that almost half of the country is unable to guarantee adequate levels of quality of life.
However, there is a positive sign: in 2025 almost all provinces recorded an improvement, on average greater than 150 points.
The ranking of the cities and the evaluation criteria
The top part of the quality of life ranking is dominated by the Northern provinces. Milan confirms its first place, driven by its record income and an improvement in education, which places it in second place in Italy for this area behind only Bologna. And the regional capital of Emilia Romagna is the new entry on the third step of the podium, going up one position thanks also to a leap in quality in health (+32 positions), in the environment (+7) and in tourism (+6). However, if Milan confirms a score outside the top 30 for work and crimes, in Bologna the most critical areas remain social security and crimes.
Bolzano is confirmed on the second step of the podium, which excels in tourism, environment, population and work, and also gains 20 positions in the income category, where it comes second in Italy. However, what is penalizing it is health and above all the area of crime and safety, which is in sharp decline. At the top of the ranking, the North-East consolidates its position with Trento, Padua and Verona (6th, 7th and 8th place respectively), while the new entry in the top ten is Reggio Emilia, which gains 9 positions and takes tenth place.
In Central Italy, the province with the highest quality of life is Florence, fourth in the ranking. The data also shows two other important advances. Ancona went from third to first national position for health, while Ascoli Piceno reaches the top of the ranking in the areas of safety and crime, with an improvement of 27 and 10 positions respectively. Here are the top 10 positions in the ranking:
The South also shows signs of improvement, but remains behind. There are still 22 provinces classified as “insufficient”, exactly like last year, but the overall average score has risen from 165.1 to 176.6 points.
The southern area with the best quality of life is Pescara, despite losing 8 positions. Isernia, on the other hand, has the highest density of urban greenery in the capital, climbing almost half the ranking in the environment category.
Caltanissetta, Crotone and Reggio Calabria remain at the bottom of the ranking, with a gap that is still very large compared to the national average.
Because Caltanissetta is last
In 2025 the province of Caltanisetta is confirmed in last position for quality of life. Dragging it to the bottom of the ranking are the very low scores in almost all the categories analyzed.
In particular, it records particularly critical scores which place it above the hundredth position with regards to work and safety and is confirmed as second to last for education. Caltanisetta also has among the lowest percentages of diploma holders and graduates, together with very high rates of unemployed and NEETs (i.e. young people who do not study, do not work and do not follow training courses).
And when an area does not offer training and work opportunities, it also tends to lose population, attractiveness and investments, generating an overall low quality of life.
All this data tells us that in Italy the quality of life today is still strongly influenced by the place where you live and if the North and part of the Center remain at the top of the ranking, the South, although recovering some positions, does not yet really reduce the gap.
