Northwest Italy

For the EU constituency, see North-West Italy (European Parliament constituency).

Northwest Italy Italia nord-occidentale (Italian) Nord-ovest (Italian)
Country	Italy
Regions	List Aosta Valley Liguria Lombardy Piedmont
Area
• Total	57,950 km2 (22,370 sq mi)
Population  (2025) [1]
• Total	15,923,805
• Density	270/km2 (710/sq mi)
Languages
– Official language	Italian
– Official linguistic minorities [2]	Franco-Provençal French Occitan
– Regional languages	Ligurian Lombard Piedmontese

Northwest Italy (Italian : Italia nord-occidentale or just Nord-ovest) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency. Northwest encompasses four of the country's 20 regions:

• Aosta Valley
• Liguria
• Lombardy
• Piedmont

Geography

It borders to the west with France via the Western Alps, to the north with Switzerland via the Central Alps, to the east with the regions of Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna belonging to Northeast Italy and to the south with the Ligurian Sea and the extreme offshoot of Tuscany in Central Italy. Northwest Italy includes a large part of the Po Valley and is crossed by the Po river, the longest in Italy.

Demography

Northwest Italy has 15,923,805 inhabitants as of 2025. ^[1]

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% 1861 6,834,069 —     1871 7,425,893 +8.7% 1881 7,841,835 +5.6% 1901 8,803,296 +12.3% 1911 9,591,567 +9.0% 1921 10,046,568 +4.7% 1931 10,559,721 +5.1% 1936 10,804,917 +2.3%	Year Pop. ±% 1951 11,745,432 +8.7% 1961 13,156,710 +12.0% 1971 14,938,428 +13.5% 1981 15,290,929 +2.4% 1991 14,950,859 −2.2% 2001 14,938,562 −0.1% 2011 15,765,567 +5.5% 2021 15,831,941 +0.4%
Source: ISTAT [3] [4]

Regions

Region	Capital	Inhabitants	Area (km²)	Density (inh./km²)
Aosta Valley	Aosta	122,714	3,263	38
Liguria	Genoa	1,509,908	5,422	278
Lombardy	Milan	10,035,481	23,844	420
Piedmont	Turin	4,255,702	25,402	167

Most populous municipalities

Milan

Turin

Genoa

Brescia

Below is the list of the most populous municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants: ^[5]

#	Municipality	Region	Inhabitants
1	Milan	Lombardy	1,366,155
2	Turin	Piedmont	856,745
3	Genoa	Liguria	563,947
4	Brescia	Lombardy	199,949
5	Monza	Lombardy	123,131
6	Bergamo	Lombardy	120,580
7	Novara	Piedmont	102,573
8	La Spezia	Liguria	92,711
9	Alessandria	Piedmont	92,518
10	Busto Arsizio	Lombardy	83,995
11	Como	Lombardy	83,228
12	Varese	Lombardy	79,018
13	Sesto San Giovanni	Lombardy	78,843
14	Cinisello Balsamo	Lombardy	74,847
15	Asti	Piedmont	73,503
16	Pavia	Lombardy	71,556
17	Cremona	Lombardy	71,062
18	Vigevano	Lombardy	62,845
19	Legnano	Lombardy	60,646
20	Savona	Liguria	58,690
21	Cuneo	Piedmont	55,804
22	Moncalieri	Piedmont	55,489
23	Sanremo	Liguria	53,033
24	Gallarate	Lombardy	52,886
25	Rho	Lombardy	50,831

Economy

The gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was 580.3 billion euro in 2018, accounting for 32.9% of Italy's economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 35,900 euro or 119% of the EU27 average in the same year. ^[6]

See also

• Italy portal

• National Institute of Statistics (Italy)
• NUTS statistical regions of Italy
• Italian NUTS level 1 regions:
  • Northeast Italy
  • South Italy
  • Insular Italy
• Northern Italy
• Central Italy
• Southern Italy

References

1. "Monthly Demographic Balance". ISTAT.
2. "Legge 482". Webcitation.org. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
3. "Popolazione residente e presente dei comuni. Censimenti dal 1861 al 1971" [Resident and present population of the municipalities. Censuses from 1861 to 1971](PDF) (in Italian). ISTAT. 24 October 1971.
4. "Dashboard Permanent census of population and housing". ISTAT.
6. "Regional GDP per capita ranged from 30% to 263% of the EU average in 2018". Eurostat.

45°30′N9°00′E / 45.500°N 9.000°E / 45.500; 9.000