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The regions of Italy () are the first-level
administrative division Administrative divisions (also administrative units, administrative regions, subnational entities, or constituent states, as well as many similar generic terms) are geographical areas into which a particular independent sovereign state is divi ...
s of the Italian Republic, constituting its second NUTS administrative level. There are twenty regions, five of which are autonomous regions with special status. Under the
Constitution of Italy The Constitution of the Italian Republic () was ratified on 22 December 1947 by the Constituent Assembly of Italy, Constituent Assembly, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against, before coming into force on 1 January 1948, one century after the p ...
, each region is an autonomous entity with defined powers. With the exception of the Aosta Valley (since 1945), each region is divided into a number of
provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...
.


History

During the
Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...
, regions were mere statistical districts of the central state. Under the Republic, they were granted a measure of political autonomy by the 1948 Italian Constitution. The original draft list comprised the
Salento Salento (; Salentino dialect, Salentino: ''Salentu''; Griko language, Salento Griko: ) is a Cultural area, cultural, List of historical states of Italy, historical, and geographic region at the southern end of the administrative region of Apuli ...
region (which was eventually included in
Apulia Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...
); ''Friuli'' and ''Venezia Giulia'' were separate regions, and Basilicata was named ''Lucania''.
Abruzzo Abruzzo (, ; ; , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; ), historically also known as Abruzzi, is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy with an area of 10,763 square km (4,156 sq mi) and a population of 1.3 million. It is divided into four ...
and
Molise Molise ( , ; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. Until 1963, it formed part of the region of Abruzzi e Molise together with Abruzzo. The split, which did not become effective until 1970, makes Molise the newest region in Ital ...
were identified as separate regions in the first draft, but were later merged into ''Abruzzi e Molise'' in the final constitution of 1948, before being separated in 1963. Implementation of regional autonomy was postponed until the first Regional elections of 1970. The ruling
Christian Democracy Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...
party did not want the opposition
Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...
to gain power in the regions where it was historically rooted (the ''red belt'' of
Emilia-Romagna Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an Regions of Italy, administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia (region), Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 m ...
,
Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...
,
Umbria Umbria ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region of central Italy. It includes Lake Trasimeno and Cascata delle Marmore, Marmore Falls, and is crossed by the Tiber. It is the only landlocked region on the Italian Peninsula, Apennine Peninsula. The re ...
and the
Marche Marche ( ; ), in English sometimes referred to as the Marches ( ) from the Italian name of the region (Le Marche), is one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. The region is located in the Central Italy, central area of the country, ...
s). Regions acquired a significant level of autonomy following a constitutional reform in 2001 (brought about by a centre-left government and confirmed by popular referendum), which granted them residual policy competence. A further
federalist The term ''federalist'' describes several political beliefs around the world. It may also refer to the concept of parties, whose members or supporters call themselves ''Federalists''. History Europe federation In Europe, proponents of deep ...
reform was proposed by the regionalist party and in 2005, the centre-right government led by
Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...
proposed a new reform that would have greatly increased the power of regions. The proposals, which had been particularly associated with , and seen by some as leading the way to a federal state, were rejected in the
2006 Italian constitutional referendum A constitutional referendum was held in Italy on 25 and 26 June 2006. The reforms were proposed and initially approved during Berlusconi II and III cabinet between October 2004 and November 2005. If ultimately approved by referendum, in conti ...
by 61.7% "no" to 38.3% "yes". The results varied considerably among the regions, ranging from 55.3% in favour in
Veneto Veneto, officially the Region of Veneto, is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the Northeast Italy, north-east of the country. It is the fourth most populous region in Italy, with a population of 4,851,851 as of 2025. Venice is t ...
to 82% against in
Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
.


Political control

Number of regions governed by each coalition since 1995: ImageSize = width:1100 height:230 PlotArea = width:810 height:180 left:30 bottom:20 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:0 till:20 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:4 start:0 Colors = id:red value:rgb(0.94,0.24,0.24) id:blue value:rgb(0.04,0.42,0.88) id:grey value:rgb(0.75,0.75,0.75) id:black value:rgb(0.40,0.40,0.40) PlotData= bar:1995 color: red from:start till:11 text:11 bar:1995 color: blue from:11 till:20 text:9 bar:1996 color: red from:start till:11 text:11 bar:1996 color: blue from:11 till:20 text:9 bar:1997 color: red from:start till:11 text:11 bar:1997 color: blue from:11 till:20 text:9 bar:1998 color: red from:start till:12 text:12 bar:1998 color: blue from:12 till:20 text:8 bar:1999 color: red from:start till:15 text:15 bar:1999 color: blue from:15 till:20 text:5 bar:2000 color: red from:start till:11 text:11 bar:2000 color: blue from:11 till:20 text:9 bar:2001 color: red from:start till:10 text:10 bar:2001 color: blue from:10 till:20 text:10 bar:2002 color: red from:start till:9 text:9 bar:2002 color: blue from:9 till:20 text:11 bar:2003 color: red from:start till:10 text:10 bar:2003 color: blue from:10 till:20 text:10 bar:2004 color: red from:start till:10 text:10 bar:2004 color: blue from:10 till:20 text:10 bar:2005 color: red from:start till:16 text:16 bar:2005 color: blue from:16 till:20 text:4 bar:2006 color: red from:start till:15 text:15 bar:2006 color: grey from:15 till:16 text:1 bar:2006 color: blue from:16 till:20 text:4 bar:2007 color: red from:start till:15 text:15 bar:2007 color: grey from:15 till:16 text:1 bar:2007 color: blue from:16 till:20 text:4 bar:2008 color: red from:start till:13 text:13 bar:2008 color: blue from:13 till:20 text:7 bar:2009 color: red from:start till:12 text:12 bar:2009 color: blue from:12 till:20 text:8 bar:2010 color: red from:start till:8 text:8 bar:2010 color: blue from:8 till:20 text:12 bar:2011 color: red from:start till:8 text:8 bar:2011 color: blue from:8 till:20 text:12 bar:2012 color: red from:start till:9 text:9 bar:2012 color: blue from:9 till:20 text:11 bar:2013 color: red from:start till:12 text:12 bar:2013 color: blue from:12 till:20 text:8 bar:2014 color: red from:start till:17 text:17 bar:2014 color: blue from:17 till:20 text:3 bar:2015 color: red from:start till:17 text:17 bar:2015 color: blue from:17 till:20 text:3 bar:2016 color: red from:start till:17 text:17 bar:2016 color: blue from:17 till:20 text:3 bar:2017 color: red from:start till:16 text:16 bar:2017 color: blue from:16 till:20 text:4 bar:2018 color: red from:start till:14 text:14 bar:2018 color: blue from:14 till:20 text:6 bar:2019 color: red from:start till:7 text:7 bar:2019 color: grey from:7 till:8 text:1 bar:2019 color: blue from:8 till:20 text:12 bar:2020 color: red from:start till:6 text:6 bar:2020 color: blue from:6 till:20 text:14 bar:2021 color: red from:start till:6 text:6 bar:2021 color: blue from:6 till:20 text:14 bar:2022 color: red from:start till:6 text:6 bar:2022 color: blue from:6 till:20 text:14 bar:2023 color: red from:start till:5 text:5 bar:2023 color: blue from:5 till:20 text:15 bar:2024 color: red from:start till:7 text:7 bar:2024 color: blue from:7 till:20 text:13


Regions


Macroregions

Macroregions are the first-level NUTS of the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
.( it)


Status

Every region has a statute that serves as a regional constitution, determining the form of government and the fundamental principles of the organization and the functioning of the region, as prescribed by the ''Constitution of Italy'' ( Article 123). Although all the regions except Tuscany define themselves in various ways as an "autonomous Region" in the first article of their Statutes, fifteen regions have ordinary statutes and five have special statutes, granting them extended autonomy.


Regions with ordinary statute

These regions, whose statutes are approved by their regional councils, were created in 1970, even though the Italian Constitution dates back to 1948. Since the constitutional reform of 2001 they have had residual legislative powers: ''the regions have exclusive legislative power with respect to any matters not expressly reserved to state law'' ( Article 117). Yet their financial autonomy is quite modest: they keep just 20% of all levied taxes, mostly used to finance the region-based healthcare system.Report RAI – Le regioni a statuto speciale (Italian), retrieved 21 January 200




Autonomous regions with special statute

Wikisource:Constitution of Italy#Article 116, Article 116 of the Italian Constitution grants
home rule Home rule is the government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governan ...
to five regions: the Aosta Valley,
Friuli-Venezia Giulia Friuli-Venezia Giulia () is one of the 20 regions of Italy and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The regional capital is Trieste on the Gulf of Trieste, a bay of the Adriatic Sea. Friuli-Venezia Giulia has an area of and a ...
,
Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...
,
Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...
, and
Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol ( ; ; ), often known in English as Trentino-South Tyrol or by its shorter Italian name Trentino-Alto Adige, is an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy, located in the ...
, allowing them some legislative, administrative and financial power to a varying extent, depending on their specific statute. These regions became autonomous in order to take into account cultural differences and protect linguistic minorities. Moreover, the government wanted to prevent them from potentially seceding or being taken away from Italy after the defeat in
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.Hiroko Kudo, "Autonomy and Managerial Innovation in Italian Regions after Constitutional Reform", Chuo University, Faculty of Law and Graduate School of Public Policy (2008): p. 1. Retrieved on 6 April 2012 from http://www.med-eu.org/proceedings/MED1/Kudo.pdf .


Institutions

Each region has an elected parliament, called ''Consiglio Regionale'' (regional council), or ''Assemblea Regionale'' (regional assembly) in Sicily, and a government called ''Giunta Regionale'' (regional committee), headed by a governor called ''Presidente della Giunta Regionale'' (president of the regional committee) or ''Presidente della Regione'' (regional president). The latter is directly elected by the citizens of each region, with the exceptions of Aosta Valley and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol regions where the president is chosen by the regional council. Under the 1995 electoral law, the winning coalition receives an absolute majority of seats on the council. The president chairs the ''giunta'', and nominates or dismisses its members, called '' assessori''. If the directly elected president resigns, new elections are called immediately. In the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region, the regional council is made up of the joint session of the two provincial councils of Trentino and of South Tyrol. The regional president is one of the two provincial commissioners.


Representation in the Senate

Article 57 of the Constitution of Italy originally established that the Senate of the Republic was to be elected on a regional basis by Italian citizens aged 25 or older (unlike the Chamber of the Deputies, which was elected on a national basis and by all Italian citizens aged 18 or older). No region could have less than 7 senators, except for the two smallest regions: Aosta Valley (1 senator) and Molise (2 senators). From 2006 to 2020, 6 out of 315 senators (and 12 out of 630 deputies) were elected by Italians residing abroad. After two constitutional amendments were passed respectively in 2020 (by constitutional referendum) and 2021, however, there have been changes. The Senate is still elected on a regional basis, but the number of senators was reduced from 315 to 200, who are now elected by all citizens aged 18 or older, just like deputies (themselves being reduced from 630 to 400). Italians residing abroad now elect 4 senators (and 8 deputies). The remaining 196 senators are assigned to each region proportionally according to their population. The amended Article 57 of the Constitution provides that no region can have fewer than 3 senators representing it, barring Aosta Valley and Molise, which retained 1 and 2 senators respectively.


Economy of regions and macroregions


See also

*
Italian NUTS level 1 regions The Classification of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS, for the French ) is a geocode standard for referencing the administrative divisions of countries for statistical purposes. The standard was developed by the European Union. Ther ...
*
Regional council (Italy) A regional council (''Consiglio regionale'') in Italy is the elected legislative assembly of a Regions of Italy, region of Italy. In Emilia-Romagna and Sicily, the legislative bodies are called the Legislative Assembly of Emilia-Romagna and the Sic ...
* List of current presidents of regions of Italy *
List of Italian regions by GDP This article lists Italian regions and autonomous provinces (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, NUTS 2) by gross domestic product (GDP). Gross domestic product by region This table reports the nominal GDP of the twenty regions of I ...
* List of Italian regions by GRP per capita *
List of Italian regions by Human Development Index This is a list of 19 regions of Italy and the 2 autonomous provinces of South Tyrol and Trentino by Human Development Index as of 2022. See also * List of countries by Human Development Index References {{Subnational entities by Human ...
* Flags of regions of Italy * ISO 3166-2:IT


Other administrative divisions

*
Provinces of Italy The provinces of Italy ( ; Grammatical number#Overview, sing.  ) are the second-level administrative divisions of the Italy, Italian Republic, on an intermediate level between a municipality () and a regions of Italy, region (). Since 2015 ...
* Metropolitan cities of Italy *
Municipalities of Italy A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the title of (). Formed ac ...


References


External links


CityMayors article

Regional Governments of Italy on Italia.gov.it


{{DEFAULTSORT:Regions Of Italy Subdivisions of Italy Ranked lists of country subdivisions Lists of subdivisions of Italy Italy 1 Regions, Italy