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:
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.
Regions
| Region | Capital | Population
(2026)[2] |
Area (km2)[1] | Density (inh./km2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aosta Valley |
Aosta | 122,554 | 3,260.90 | 37.6 |
 Liguria |
Genoa | 1,511,988 | 5,416.21 | 279.2 |
 Lombardy |
Milan | 10,065,694 | 23,863.65 | 421.8 |
 Piedmont |
Turin | 4,255,006 | 25,387.07 | 167.6 |
Demographics
As of 2026, the population is 15,955,242, of which 49.2% are male, and 50.8% are female. Minors make up 14.4% of the population, and seniors make up 25.5%.[2]
Historical population | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source: ISTAT[4][5] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Largest cities
Below is the list of the most populous cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants:[2]
| City | Region | Population
(2026)[2] |
|---|---|---|
| Milan | Lombardy |
1,362,863 |
| Turin | Piedmont |
855,654 |
| Genoa | Liguria |
566,247 |
| Brescia | Lombardy |
201,342 |
| Monza | Lombardy |
123,672 |
| Bergamo | Lombardy |
120,629 |
| Novara | Piedmont |
103,238 |
| Alessandria | Piedmont |
93,409 |
| La Spezia | Liguria |
92,610 |
| Busto Arsizio | Lombardy |
84,595 |
| Como | Lombardy |
83,035 |
| Varese | Lombardy |
79,100 |
| Sesto San Giovanni | Lombardy |
78,850 |
| Cinisello Balsamo | Lombardy |
75,154 |
| Asti | Piedmont |
73,604 |
| Pavia | Lombardy |
71,811 |
| Cremona | Lombardy |
71,093 |
| Vigevano | Lombardy |
63,480 |
| Legnano | Lombardy |
60,980 |
| Savona | Liguria |
58,421 |
| Cuneo | Piedmont |
55,747 |
| Moncalieri | Piedmont |
55,442 |
| Sanremo | Liguria |
53,157 |
| Gallarate | Lombardy |
53,023 |
| Rho | Lombardy |
51,000 |
| Mantua | Lombardy |
50,215 |
Immigration
As of 2025, immigrants make up 14.4% of the population. The 5 largest foreign countries of birth are Romania, Albania, Morocco, Egypt, and Ukraine.[6]
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.[7]
See also
References
- 1 2 "Superficie di Comuni Province e Regioni italiane al 9 ottobre 2011" (in Italian). ISTAT.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Resident population". ISTAT.
- ↑ "Legge 482". Webcitation.org. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ↑ "Popolazione residente dei comuni. Censimenti dal 1861 al 1991" [Resident population of the municipalities. Censuses from 1861 to 1991] (PDF) (in Italian). ISTAT. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 November 2025.
- ↑ "Resident population - Time series". ISTAT.
- ↑ "Resident population by sex, municipality and citizenship". ISTAT.
- ↑ "Regional GDP per capita ranged from 30% to 263% of the EU average in 2018". Eurostat.
45°30′N 9°00′E / 45.500°N 9.000°E
