01
Cost of living
$1,093/mo
IT · FLORENCELocal facts
Living in Florence.
Tuscany's capital, 362,000 people around a compact UNESCO-listed core that is also one of Europe's most heavily touristed. Central rents are the second-highest of Italy's modelled cities after Milan, about one resident in six is a foreign national, and summers are hot and dry — July and August average daily highs above 32°C.
VerifiedUpdated
Population 361,625
· Europe/Rome· Italy rules apply
ISTAT — Popolazione residente per età e sesso al 1° gennaio 2026 (POSAS), comune di Firenze 048017
Official source
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Sum of the single-year-of-age rows for comune 048017 in POSAS_2026_it_Comuni.csv, excluding age code 999, which is ISTAT's own total row and would double the count. The same computation reproduces the already-published figures for Genoa (566,247), Rome (2,745,062) and Milan (1,362,863) exactly.
- Notes
- Comune di Firenze only. The metropolitan city of Florence holds roughly a million people, and the built-up area spills past the comune boundary into Sesto Fiorentino, Scandicci and Campi Bisenzio, so the municipal figure understates the functional city more here than in Rome or Milan. ISTAT flags the 1 January 2026 figures as an estimate.
IT · FLORENCE
01
At a glance
The headline numbers for Florence — each with its own source and freshness. A live official figure is not the same as a survey estimate or a 30-year climate normal.
7.2/10
02
Rent, 1–3 bed
$943–$2,976
/mo
03
Freelancer tax
24.9%
Safety
9.9/100.57/100k
Air quality
6.9/1012.7 µg/m³
Internet
2.2/1027 Mbps
English
5.0/10Moderate
Private health
no verified data
What the tags meanofficial — live figure from a government or authorityopen data — open dataset (Eurostat, EEA, M-Lab, UdSC…)survey — survey or index estimatecurated — SettleMetric-assembled estimate — open the source for the method
02
What it costs you per month
A planning estimate: real asking rent plus a cost-of-living basket scaled to your household. Not a quote.
Household
Lifestyle
Location
Estimated total
$2,037/mo
≈ $24,444 / year
Where it goes
- Rent (1-bed)$943
- Food & non-alcoholic beverages$281
- Housing (water, energy, maintenance — excl. rent)$160
- Transport$157
- Restaurants & accommodation$85
- Other goods & services (personal care, social protection, misc.)$71
- Furnishings & household equipment$61
- Health (out-of-pocket)$61
- Recreation, sport & culture$55
- Clothing & footwear$54
- Insurance & financial services$39
- Information & communication$38
- Alcoholic beverages & tobacco$23
- Education$9
- Living costs$1,094
Rent from the asking-rent matrix below. Living costs scale a one-person basket ($1,094/mo) by household size and lifestyle; the equivalence factors are our assumption. Schooling and one-off setup are excluded.
03
Cost of living
What a single person spends each month — food, utilities, transport, eating out and the rest — excluding rent.
ISTAT — Spese per consumi delle famiglie, Anno 2024 (Prospetto 4, divisioni di spesa)
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Method
- Each ISTAT 2024 spending division for all households, divided by the average household size 2.2, uplifted ×1.0164 (HICP 2024→2025) and converted at 1.1399 USD/EUR. The housing line is shown net of both imputed rent (€617.39/household) and actual rentals (€63.08, from the 2.951% HICP weight), leaving water, energy, maintenance and condominium charges. Items sum to $1,094 against the $1,093 headline; the €1 gap is rounding.
- Notes
- Food is the largest single line at a quarter of the basket — a high share for Western Europe, and one reason Italy's overall cost sits below France and Austria despite comparable incomes. Health is out-of-pocket only: the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale covers residents, with co-payments (ticket) and private consultations making up this line.
01Food & non-alcoholic beverages281 USD
02Housing (water, energy, maintenance — excl. rent)160 USD
03Transport157 USD
04Restaurants & accommodation85 USD
05Other goods & services (personal care, social protection, misc.)71 USD
06Furnishings & household equipment61 USD
07Health (out-of-pocket)61 USD
08Recreation, sport & culture55 USD
09Clothing & footwear54 USD
10Insurance & financial services39 USD
11Information & communication38 USD
12Alcoholic beverages & tobacco23 USD
13Education9 USD
Italy's household-budget basket for a single person, excluding rent. Non-rent costs vary little between cities — the city-specific part is rent, shown under Housing below.
01Cost of living (single, excl. rent)country-level1,093USD/month, single person, excluding rent7.2
What this measures
Monthly cost of a defined single-person basket (food, transport, utilities, mobile+internet, modest leisure) excluding rent, curated from national statistics office price data and large local retailers' published prices, converted to USD at the ECB rate recorded in fx-rates. The method field of each value itemizes the basket inputs.
Lower is betterUSD/month, single person, excluding rentre-verified every 365 days
Curated by SettleMetric
ISTAT — Spese per consumi delle famiglie, Anno 2024 (Prospetto 4, tavole allegate)
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Method
- ISTAT household budget survey 2024: average monthly household spending €2,755.09, of which imputed rent (affitti figurativi) €617.39 → monetary spending €2,137.70. Actual rentals removed using Italy's 2025 HICP weight for COICOP 04.1 (29.51 per 1,000 = 2.951%, Eurostat prc_hicp_inw) = €63.08 → €2,074.62 excluding all rent. Divided by the average household size of 2.2 (Eurostat ilc_lvph01) = €943.01 per person per month; uplifted by HICP annual averages 2024→2025 (122.3 → 124.3, ×1.0164) = €958.43; converted at 1 EUR = 1.1399 USD (ECB, 2026-07-02) → $1,093.
- Notes
- Per-capita basis, to match how Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. ISTAT also publishes the real single-person household basket, which is what a solo mover actually faces: €1,931.70/month total, €1,347.48 after removing imputed and actual rent — about $1,561/month on the same uplift and FX. A person living alone has no household economies of scale, so read the $1,093 as the comparable cross-country figure and the $1,561 as the realistic personal one. No extrapolation into 2026 was applied beyond the 2025 annual average.
04
Housing
What it costs to rent, by apartment type and location.
Immobiliare.it — Mercato immobiliare Firenze, canoni di locazione richiesti per zona (giugno 2026)
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jun 30, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Two per-m² rates from the 15 zone quotations of June 2026: central = mean of the priciest quartile (4 zones) = €23.45/m²; outside the centre = mean of the cheapest quartile (Ugnano/Mantignano €12.55, L'Isolotto €14.78, Legnaia/Soffiano €16.01, Serpiolle/Careggi €16.12) = €14.87/m². Applied to the dataset's assumed floor areas — studio 35 m², 1BR 55 m², 2BR 80 m², 3BR 110 m² — and converted at 1 EUR = 1.1534 USD (ECB, 2026-08-13). Read through the Internet Archive snapshot of 2026-07-17, as above.
- Notes
- A central premium of 1.58x, the narrowest of Italy's big cities after Bologna and Milan. Florence is small enough that "outside the centre" still means a 20-minute bus ride rather than a suburb, which is why the cheap quartile is not very cheap: even Ugnano, the bottom zone, asks more per square metre than central Genoa.
| Apartment | Central | Outside centre |
|---|---|---|
| Studio | 947 USD/mo | 600 USD/mo |
| 1-bedroom | 1,488 USD/mo | 943 USD/mo |
| 2-bedroom | 2,164 USD/mo | 1,372 USD/mo |
| 3-bedroom | 2,976 USD/mo | 1,886 USD/mo |
05
Climate
Temperature and rainfall through the year, plus air quality.
NOAA/WMO Climatological Standard Normals 1991–2020 — Firenze Peretola (WMO 16170)
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2020
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- A complete station record, unlike Bologna's and Naples's: WMO publishes all twelve monthly means of daily maximum and daily minimum temperature and all twelve precipitation sums, each from 25 to 29 of the 30 years. Figures are the published values rounded to the dataset convention of 0.1°C and whole millimetres; the published annual precipitation total is 787.79 mm against the 787 mm these rounded months sum to.
- Notes
- The hottest summer of Italy's modelled cities — July and August daily maxima of 32.3 and 32.4°C, roughly 2.5°C above Rome — because Florence sits in a basin of the Arno ringed by hills, with little ventilation. Rain is concentrated in autumn: October and November alone bring 220 mm, 28% of the annual 787 mm, while July averages 25 mm.
Average day/night temperature (lines, left axis) and total rainfall (bars, right axis) for each month — 1991–2020 normals. Hover a month for exact figures.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daytime high °C | 11.2° | 12.7° | 16.2° | 20.0° | 24.3° | 29.1° | 32.3° | 32.4° | 27.3° | 21.5° | 15.6° | 11.4° |
| Nighttime low °C | 2.1° | 2.5° | 5.1° | 8.1° | 11.9° | 16.0° | 18.4° | 18.5° | 15.0° | 10.9° | 6.4° | 2.6° |
| Rainfall mm | 58 | 64 | 61 | 67 | 63 | 45 | 25 | 36 | 67 | 105 | 115 | 81 |
01Climate comfort6pleasant months/year6.0
What this measures
Number of months whose 1991–2020 climate normals satisfy: mean daily maximum between 15°C and 28°C and monthly precipitation under 150mm. Computed from the city's climate-normals indicator; the raw normals are stored alongside so users can judge by their own taste.
Higher is betterpleasant months/yearre-verified every 3650 days
Curated by SettleMetric
SettleMetric — computed from the Firenze Peretola 1991–2020 WMO normals
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2020
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Months whose 1991–2020 normals have a mean daily maximum of 15–28°C and under 150 mm of precipitation: March, April, May, September, October, November = 6. June, July and August are excluded for heat (29.1, 32.3 and 32.4°C) and December to February for cold. No month is excluded for rain.
02Air quality (PM2.5)12.7µg/m³, annual mean PM2.56.9
What this measures
Annual mean fine-particulate (PM2.5) concentration for the city, latest available year. Anchors follow the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³ → 10) through the EU limit value territory (25 µg/m³ → 2). Preferred source: European Environment Agency city-level air quality data; outside Europe: WHO Ambient Air Quality Database or the national monitoring network.
Lower is betterµg/m³, annual mean PM2.5re-verified every 730 days
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Row "Firenze/ITA", year 2024, pm25_concentration 12.665 µg/m³ at 93% temporal coverage, from five stations — one suburban background, two urban background and two urban traffic. The row aggregates a station centroid of 43.78002°N 11.27284°E, about 1.2 km north of the centre, over a footprint of 366,927 people against the 361,625 comune population, so this is a city-proper reading rather than a metropolitan one.
- Notes
- Two and a half times the WHO 2021 guideline of 5 µg/m³, inside the current EU limit of 25 and above the 2030 EU limit of 10. Cleaner than Milan and Bologna, close to Rome. The series is flat rather than falling — 13.36 in 2020, 12.07 in 2021, 13.13 in 2022, 12.53 in 2023, 12.67 in 2024 — so Florence has not repeated the Po Valley's recent improvement, but it started from a much lower base.
06
Safety
How safe daily life is, from official crime statistics.
01Homicide ratecountry-level0.6intentional homicides per 100,000/year9.9
What this measures
Intentional homicide victims per 100,000 population, latest available year. Country level: UNODC national series. City level: official municipal/police statistics where published; otherwise null (country value shown as country-level).
Lower is betterintentional homicides per 100,000/yearre-verified every 730 days
Open data
Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB)
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Notes
- Police-recorded intentional homicide, 2024 (2023 was also 0.57). Dataset last updated by Eurostat 2026-04-29. Among the safest large countries in Europe — roughly half the French rate and a fifth of the global average — and down from 1.05 in 2008.
Eurostat — police-recorded offences by category (crim_off_cat, ICCS, unit P_HTHAB)
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Notes
- ICCS categories: theft 0502, burglary of private residential premises 05012, drug offences 0601, robbery 0401, sexual violence 0301, serious assault 020111. Italy's profile is the mirror image of its low homicide rate: property crime is high (theft above 1,550 per 100k, concentrated in tourist cities) while violent offences are low — serious assault is recorded at 2.04 per 100k, but Italy defines that category far more narrowly than France or Poland do, so cross-country comparison of that line is meaningless. Fraud, not shown here, was recorded at 732.67 per 100k.
01Theft1,552per 100k
02Burglary264per 100k
03Drug offences54per 100k
04Robbery49.8per 100k
05Sexual violence12.6per 100k
06Serious assault2per 100k
ICCS categories: theft 0502, burglary of private residential premises 05012, drug offences 0601, robbery 0401, sexual violence 0301, serious assault 020111. Italy's profile is the mirror image of its low homicide rate: property crime is high (theft above 1,550 per 100k, concentrated in tourist cities) while violent offences are low — serious assault is recorded at 2.04 per 100k, but Italy defines that category far more narrowly than France or Poland do, so cross-country comparison of that line is meaningless. Fraud, not shown here, was recorded at 732.67 per 100k.
OSCE ODIHR Hate Crime Reporting — Italy (official police-recorded)
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Notes
- OSCE ODIHR 2024: 893 alleged criminal offences recorded as hate crimes, drawn from the police database (SDI) and OSCAD, the interior ministry's observatory on discrimination. Italy does not break out a racist/xenophobic subtotal in the data it submits, so that field is left empty rather than guessed. Counts are not comparable across countries — a higher number often reflects better recording, and Italy's total is far below France's 6,096 largely because of how bias motivation is flagged and how willing victims are to report.
893
recorded by police
OSCE ODIHR 2024: 893 alleged criminal offences recorded as hate crimes, drawn from the police database (SDI) and OSCAD, the interior ministry's observatory on discrimination. Italy does not break out a racist/xenophobic subtotal in the data it submits, so that field is left empty rather than guessed. Counts are not comparable across countries — a higher number often reflects better recording, and Italy's total is far below France's 6,096 largely because of how bias motivation is flagged and how willing victims are to report.
07
Infrastructure
Internet speed and how parcels get to your door.
01Domestic delivery qualitycountry-levelGood7.0
What this measures
Quality of in-country parcel delivery. excellent = nationwide next-day widely available, dense parcel-locker network, real-time tracking standard; good = 1–3 day delivery, lockers in major cities; basic = reliable but slow (3–7 days), mostly to-door or post-office pickup; poor = unreliable delivery, street addresses often unusable, informal workarounds common. Classified from official service/coverage data of the national postal operator and the two largest private carriers; inputs itemized in each value's method field.
Rated by category—re-verified every 730 days
Curated by SettleMetric
Poste Italiane — Rete Punto Poste (punti di ritiro e Locker)
- Data as of
- Jul 28, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Method
- Poste Italiane's Punto Poste network lists over 18,000 pickup points and lockers, and more than 30,000 proximity points counting post offices, alongside private networks — BRT, GLS, SDA, DHL, UPS and InPost Italia. Home delivery is nationwide with next-day options in the north and centre. Rated 'good' rather than 'excellent': locker density is far below Poland's or France's (Poste's own locker estate is in the low thousands, against ~26,000 InPost lockers in Poland), and delivery reliability is noticeably weaker in the south and on the islands.
- Notes
- Cash on delivery (contrassegno) is still a mainstream consumer option in Italy, unlike in France — a legacy of lower card penetration that remains useful for anyone without an Italian bank card yet.
02International delivery easecountry-levelMinor friction7.0
What this measures
Ease of receiving goods from abroad. seamless = major international carriers deliver door-to-door, meaningful duty-free de-minimis threshold, customs clearance predictable in days; minor-friction = carriers present but low de-minimis, extra paperwork or routine delays; significant-friction = frequent customs holds, high brokerage fees, some marketplaces refuse to ship; unreliable = parcels regularly lost or blocked, informal import channels dominate. De-minimis thresholds and clearance rules from the national customs authority (official source, cite the regulation); carrier presence from carriers' official pages.
Rated by category—re-verified every 365 days
Official source
- Data as of
- Jul 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Notes
- Intra-EU shipping is frictionless under the single market — a parcel from Germany or Spain arrives like a domestic one. For non-EU imports the EU removed the €150 duty-free threshold and from 1 July 2026 applies a temporary flat customs duty per item on consignments up to €150, with VAT already collected at checkout through IOSS. The same EU-wide regime as every member state; Italian customs handling of non-EU parcels is slower than northern Europe's, which is the 'minor friction' in practice.
03Internet speedcountry-level27.4Mbps, median fixed download2.2
What this measures
Median fixed-broadband download speed over the trailing 6 months from M-Lab NDT open data (CC0), aggregated at country or city level. Not comparable with Ookla figures (different test methodology) — do not mix sources within this criterion.
Higher is betterMbps, median fixed downloadre-verified every 365 days
Open data
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Italy
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2023
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Method
- Median of the 344 daily country-median download values for IT in 2023 (17.42M download tests; daily medians ranged 8.6–29.9 Mbps). M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads well below advertised or Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API.
- Notes
- Low by Western European standards on this metric: Italy's copper legacy is long and FTTH rollout, while accelerating under the national broadband plan, still lags France and Spain. Fibre is available in the three modelled cities; rural and southern coverage is where the national median is lost.
08
Healthcare
What comprehensive private medical cover costs.
01Private healthcare costcountry-levelno verified data—
What this measures
Median of at least three publicly quoted annual premiums for comprehensive private medical insurance (outpatient + inpatient, ~$100k coverage, small deductible) for a healthy 35-year-old resident foreigner, from local and international insurers. Method field lists the insurers quoted.
Lower is betterUSD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-oldre-verified every 365 days
No verified premium. Italian insurers do not publish individual health-policy tariffs the way French mutuelle comparators do, and the figures circulating on broker blogs (roughly €300–500 a year for a basic individual policy at 35) are not traceable to a named tariff table, so they are not recorded here. What is certain is the structure: residents — including foreigners with a residence permit — enrol in the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, which covers GP care, hospital treatment and subsidised specialist care against a co-payment (ticket). Private policies in Italy are supplementary, bought mainly to skip public waiting lists, not a replacement. Non-residents on a digital-nomad or elective-residence visa must instead hold private travel/health insurance for the visa itself.
09
Money & crypto
Crypto rules and how freely personal money moves.
01Crypto regulationcountry-levelLegal regulated8.0
What this measures
Own classification of the legal status of holding, trading and cashing out cryptocurrency for individuals: legal-friendly (legal with clear, favourable rules or explicit tax exemptions), legal-regulated (legal under standard licensing/AML and taxation), restricted (partial bans: payments or banking access prohibited), banned (holding/trading prohibited). Classified from national regulators' and central banks' official positions.
Rated by category—re-verified every 180 days
Official source
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Notes
- Legal and fully regulated, but taxed harder than most of Europe from 2026: the substitute tax on crypto capital gains (art. 67(1)(c-sexies) TUIR) rose from 26% to 33% on gains realised from 1 January 2026, and the previous €2,000 annual exemption threshold was abolished from 2025 — so the first euro of gain is taxable. Euro-denominated e-money tokens stay at 26%. Service providers operate under the EU MiCA regime, supervised by CONSOB and the Bank of Italy. Note that the regime forfettario's substitute tax does not cover capital gains: crypto is declared separately in quadro RT whatever your business regime.
02Financial control levelcountry-levelLow10.0
What this measures
Own composite of state control over personal money flows: currency/capital controls (IMF AREAER), restrictions on foreign accounts and transfers, mandatory income declaration scope for residents, cash payment limits, banking access for foreigners. Low = free movement of personal funds and easy non-resident banking; very-high = strict capital controls and pervasive reporting. Method field on each value lists the inputs used.
Rated by category—re-verified every 365 days
Official source
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2023
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Method
- Composite: Italy uses the euro, with EU free movement of capital and no exchange or capital controls. The binding constraints are ordinary anti-money-laundering rules — a ceiling on cash transfers between parties (art. 49 of D.Lgs. 231/2007), a reporting duty on large cash tourism sales, and the RW section of the tax return, in which residents must declare foreign accounts and assets including crypto. Non-resident banking is available with standard KYC. None of this restricts moving your own money, so the classification is 'low', the same as France and Spain.
- Notes
- Two official sources disagree on the general cash ceiling and we flag rather than hide it: the 2023 Budget Law (law 197/2022) raised it from €1,000 to €5,000 from 1 January 2023, and this Agenzia delle Entrate page tracks that by setting the tourism cash-sale reporting threshold at €5,000 ('previously €1,000 until 2025'), while the Treasury's own prevention-of-financial-crime FAQ still displays €1,000 as the limit in force since 2022. Either figure lands Italy in the same band. Worth knowing separately: Italy's declaration duty for foreign-held assets is broad, and penalties for undeclared foreign accounts are real.
10
Language
How far English gets you in daily life and services.
01English proficiencycountry-levelModerate5.0
What this measures
Own banding of how far English gets a resident in daily life (government offices, healthcare, housing, services). Informed by EF EPI band (research source, cited with attribution, not republished) plus official language status and service-sector realities. Values are our bands, not EF scores.
Rated by category—re-verified every 730 days
Research
EF EPI 2025 — Italy (score 513, rank 59/123, Moderate band)
- Data as of
- Nov 1, 2025
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Notes
- Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Italy score 513, global rank 59, 'Moderate' band (EF cutoffs: Moderate 500–549), down 15 points on the previous edition. Reading scores highest (534) and speaking lowest (417), which matches the lived experience: written and technical English is workable in Milan's professional world, but Italian is required for administration, healthcare and most daily life, and proficiency falls sharply from north to south.
11
Education
International schooling options for families.
01International schools5accredited international schools, count6.0
What this measures
Count of international schools in the metro area accredited by or member of IB, CIS, COBIS, or an equivalent national-curriculum-abroad body (verified against the accreditor's public registry, not aggregator sites).
Higher is betteraccredited international schools, countre-verified every 730 days
Curated by SettleMetric
International Schools Database — International schools in Florence (5 schools listed)
- Data as of
- Aug 28, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- The directory's headline count and its list agree at five: International School of Florence (British and Italian curricula), Canadian School of Florence, Bilingual International School Borgo San Lorenzo, Lycée Victor Hugo (French), and Florence Bilingual School. The same directory and the same counting rule were used for Rome, Milan and Genoa in this dataset.
- Notes
- Five schools for 362,000 residents is better provision per head than Rome's 29 for 2.7 million, and two and a half times what Bologna offers at almost exactly the same city size. The curricula are British/Italian, Canadian, French and bilingual; Milan is the only other city in this dataset with a Canadian school. A directory count rather than an accreditor-by-accreditor tally: the IB World School registry answers automated requests with a bot challenge that we do not bypass.
12
Demographics
Who else lives here — the share of foreign residents and the largest national communities, from official statistics.
Openness to foreignerscountry-levelOpenGallup MAI 6.49/9 · 2016
What this measures
How accepting the resident population is of migrants and foreigners — the inverse of xenophobia, a real concern for someone relocating. Our own five-band reading (very-open / open / moderate / reserved / low) informed primarily by the Gallup Migrant Acceptance Index (0–9 scale: three questions on migrants living in the country, becoming neighbours, and marrying into the family; 2019 wave), cross-checked where available with the World Values Survey wave 7 / European Values Study 2017 question on whether people would not want immigrants or foreign workers as neighbours (a higher share = more hostile). Banding guide against the Gallup 0–9 score: ≥7.0 very-open, 5.5–7.0 open, 4.0–5.5 moderate, 2.5–4.0 reserved, below 2.5 low (the 2019 global average of 5.21 sits in 'moderate'). Country level only: no credible city-level survey of attitudes to foreigners exists, so on city pages the country reading is shown as country context. Gallup is a research source cited with attribution, not republished in bulk; the raw index score/year and any cross-check figure are carried inside each value. Value shape: { band, gallupMai?, gallupYear?, unwantedNeighborPct?, unwantedNeighborSource? }. Display-only: attitudinal, survey-based and ~2019 vintage, so it is shown as honest context and never folded into the composite score.
Reference data—re-verified every 1825 days
Research
- Data as of
- Aug 23, 2017
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Notes
- Gallup MAI 6.49/9 (2016/2017 wave), well above the global average of 5.29 and just ahead of France (6.46) — a result that sits oddly against Italy's loud political debate on immigration, and a reminder that the index measures personal acceptance (migrants as neighbours, family) rather than support for immigration policy. Vintage 2019 or earlier: honest context, never scored.
ISTAT — Popolazione straniera residente al 1° gennaio 2026 per età e sesso, comune di Firenze 048017
Official source
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- 57,735 foreign residents in comune 048017 against a total resident population of 361,625, both at 1 January 2026 and both from ISTAT's own municipal files (STRASA and POSAS 2026), each summed over the single-year-of-age rows with the age code 999 total row excluded = 15.97%.
- Notes
- Well above the Italian average of 9.1%, and the second-highest of the Italian cities in this dataset after Milan (19.7%). This counts registered foreign residents, so it excludes naturalised Italians of foreign origin and most of the large short-stay student population, who do not register as residents.
Largest communities of foreign residents5,371,251 total
Eurostat — Population on 1 January by citizenship (migr_pop1ctz), Italy
Open data
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2025
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Notes
- Counts are Eurostat's as published; shares are those counts over the 5,371,251 foreign residents. These ten citizenships account for about 63% of all foreign nationals. Romanians alone are almost a fifth — a legacy of free movement after 2007 — and the Ukrainian figure includes those under temporary protection.
01Romania19.6%1,053,042
02Albania7.7%414,622
03Morocco7.7%412,457
04China5.8%311,250
05Ukraine5.3%287,187
06Bangladesh4%213,622
07Egypt3.2%174,141
08India3.2%171,429
09Pakistan3.2%171,179
10Philippines2.9%153,455
Counts are Eurostat's as published; shares are those counts over the 5,371,251 foreign residents. These ten citizenships account for about 63% of all foreign nationals. Romanians alone are almost a fifth — a legacy of free movement after 2007 — and the Ukrainian figure includes those under temporary protection.
13
How you can stay
How you can legally enter and stay. These apply across Italy.
All requirements & citizenship filter- 01Digital nomad and remote worker visa (nomadi digitali e lavoratori da remoto)Digital nomad visaAll except EU citizensincome ≥ 28,000 EUR/yearHighly qualified work carried out remotely — self-employed (nomade digitale) or as an employee/collaborator of a company that may be based outside Italy (lavoratore da remoto)1 yr +→ PR path
- 02Self-employment visa (lavoro autonomo) — inside the decreto flussi quotaFreelance permitAll except EU citizensA place inside the annual decreto flussi quota — for 2026 the whole country has 650 self-employment entries, against 76,200 for non-seasonal employment and 88,000 seasonal2 yrs +→ PR path
- 03Elective residence visa (residenza elettiva)Temporary residenceAll except EU citizensincome ≥ 31,000 EUR/yearSubstantial and stable passive income — pension, annuity, income from property or from stable economic and commercial activities1 yr +→ PR path
- 04EU/EEA/Swiss freedom of movement — registration with the comuneVisa-free stayEU citizensincome ≥ 5,062 EUR/yearThe first three months need no formality at all beyond a valid identity document3 mo +→ PR path
14
What you'd pay in taxes
The tax schemes a freelancer can choose from. Rules are national, the same in Florence as anywhere in Italy.
Full schemes & calculator- 01Regime forfettario — IT and other services (67% coefficient)33% of revenue (deductible from revenue) + 26.1% of revenue (max 31,882/year) (deductible from revenue)24.9%burden at €60k
- 02Regime forfettario — professional and technical activities (78% coefficient)22% of revenue (deductible from revenue) + 26.1% of revenue (max 31,882/year) (deductible from revenue)29.0%burden at €60k
- 03Impatriati regime — 50% income exemption for new residents50% of profit (deductible from profit) + 26.1% of revenue (max 31,882/year) (deductible from profit)31.6%burden at €60k
- 04Ordinary self-employment (lavoro autonomo) — IRPEF 23/33/43% + INPS26.1% of profit (max 31,882/year) (deductible from profit) + progressive on profit: 23% up to 28,000, 33% up to 50,000, 43% above45.8%burden at €60k
See what you would keep
Your income against Italy's real tax schemes — the same engine as the full calculator.
- 1 Regime forfettario — IT and other services (67% coefficient)45,062 EURnet/year24.9% burden
- 2 Regime forfettario — professional and technical activities (78% coefficient)42,609 EURnet/year29.0% burden
- 3 Impatriati regime — 50% income exemption for new residents41,056 EURnet/year31.6% burden
- 4 Ordinary self-employment (lavoro autonomo) — IRPEF 23/33/43% + INPS32,520 EURnet/year45.8% burden
15
Who is Florence for?
The same place reads differently depending on why you move. Each lens pulls the facts that matter most for that plan — with sources, and the trade-offs stated plainly.
Contract or freelance in tech, billing clients abroad.
Works in your favour
Cost of living (single, excl. rent)$1,093/mo
ISTAT — Spese per consumi delle famiglie, Anno 2024 (Prospetto 4, tavole allegate)
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Method
- ISTAT household budget survey 2024: average monthly household spending €2,755.09, of which imputed rent (affitti figurativi) €617.39 → monetary spending €2,137.70. Actual rentals removed using Italy's 2025 HICP weight for COICOP 04.1 (29.51 per 1,000 = 2.951%, Eurostat prc_hicp_inw) = €63.08 → €2,074.62 excluding all rent. Divided by the average household size of 2.2 (Eurostat ilc_lvph01) = €943.01 per person per month; uplifted by HICP annual averages 2024→2025 (122.3 → 124.3, ×1.0164) = €958.43; converted at 1 EUR = 1.1399 USD (ECB, 2026-07-02) → $1,093.
- Notes
- Per-capita basis, to match how Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. ISTAT also publishes the real single-person household basket, which is what a solo mover actually faces: €1,931.70/month total, €1,347.48 after removing imputed and actual rent — about $1,561/month on the same uplift and FX. A person living alone has no household economies of scale, so read the $1,093 as the comparable cross-country figure and the $1,561 as the realistic personal one. No extrapolation into 2026 was applied beyond the 2025 annual average.
Domestic delivery qualityGood
Poste Italiane — Rete Punto Poste (punti di ritiro e Locker)
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jul 28, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Method
- Poste Italiane's Punto Poste network lists over 18,000 pickup points and lockers, and more than 30,000 proximity points counting post offices, alongside private networks — BRT, GLS, SDA, DHL, UPS and InPost Italia. Home delivery is nationwide with next-day options in the north and centre. Rated 'good' rather than 'excellent': locker density is far below Poland's or France's (Poste's own locker estate is in the low thousands, against ~26,000 InPost lockers in Poland), and delivery reliability is noticeably weaker in the south and on the islands.
- Notes
- Cash on delivery (contrassegno) is still a mainstream consumer option in Italy, unlike in France — a legacy of lower card penetration that remains useful for anyone without an Italian bank card yet.
Watch-outs
Freelancer tax burden24.9%
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Method
- Best eligible scheme at €60,000 revenue for an IT freelancer = it-forfettario-it-67. Taxable base 67% × 60,000 = 40,200 (ATECO group 9 coefficient; expenses never reduce the base). INPS Gestione Separata 26.07% = 10,480.14, deducted from the forfeitary income → 29,719.86. Imposta sostitutiva 15% = 4,457.98. Levies 14,938.12 → 24.9%. The first five years of a new activity run at 5% instead (19.9%); the ordinary IRPEF route on the same profile is near 41%.
Internet speed27 Mbps
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Italy
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2023
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Method
- Median of the 344 daily country-median download values for IT in 2023 (17.42M download tests; daily medians ranged 8.6–29.9 Mbps). M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads well below advertised or Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API.
- Notes
- Low by Western European standards on this metric: Italy's copper legacy is long and FTTH rollout, while accelerating under the national broadband plan, still lags France and Spain. Fibre is available in the three modelled cities; rural and southern coverage is where the national median is lost.
English proficiencyModerate
EF EPI 2025 — Italy (score 513, rank 59/123, Moderate band)
Research
- Data as of
- Nov 1, 2025
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Notes
- Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Italy score 513, global rank 59, 'Moderate' band (EF cutoffs: Moderate 500–549), down 15 points on the previous edition. Reading scores highest (534) and speaking lowest (417), which matches the lived experience: written and technical English is workable in Milan's professional world, but Italian is required for administration, healthcare and most daily life, and proficiency falls sharply from north to south.
Relocating with a partner and school-age children.
Works in your favour
Homicide rate0.57/100k
Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB)
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Notes
- Police-recorded intentional homicide, 2024 (2023 was also 0.57). Dataset last updated by Eurostat 2026-04-29. Among the safest large countries in Europe — roughly half the French rate and a fifth of the global average — and down from 1.05 in 2008.
Air quality (PM2.5)12.7 µg/m³
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Row "Firenze/ITA", year 2024, pm25_concentration 12.665 µg/m³ at 93% temporal coverage, from five stations — one suburban background, two urban background and two urban traffic. The row aggregates a station centroid of 43.78002°N 11.27284°E, about 1.2 km north of the centre, over a footprint of 366,927 people against the 361,625 comune population, so this is a city-proper reading rather than a metropolitan one.
- Notes
- Two and a half times the WHO 2021 guideline of 5 µg/m³, inside the current EU limit of 25 and above the 2030 EU limit of 10. Cleaner than Milan and Bologna, close to Rome. The series is flat rather than falling — 13.36 in 2020, 12.07 in 2021, 13.13 in 2022, 12.53 in 2023, 12.67 in 2024 — so Florence has not repeated the Po Valley's recent improvement, but it started from a much lower base.
Watch-outs
International schools5
International Schools Database — International schools in Florence (5 schools listed)
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Aug 28, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- The directory's headline count and its list agree at five: International School of Florence (British and Italian curricula), Canadian School of Florence, Bilingual International School Borgo San Lorenzo, Lycée Victor Hugo (French), and Florence Bilingual School. The same directory and the same counting rule were used for Rome, Milan and Genoa in this dataset.
- Notes
- Five schools for 362,000 residents is better provision per head than Rome's 29 for 2.7 million, and two and a half times what Bologna offers at almost exactly the same city size. The curricula are British/Italian, Canadian, French and bilingual; Milan is the only other city in this dataset with a Canadian school. A directory count rather than an accreditor-by-accreditor tally: the IB World School registry answers automated requests with a bot challenge that we do not bypass.
Private healthcare costno verified data
Ministero della Salute — Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (iscrizione e assistenza)
Official source
- Data as of
- Jul 28, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Notes
- No verified premium. Italian insurers do not publish individual health-policy tariffs the way French mutuelle comparators do, and the figures circulating on broker blogs (roughly €300–500 a year for a basic individual policy at 35) are not traceable to a named tariff table, so they are not recorded here. What is certain is the structure: residents — including foreigners with a residence permit — enrol in the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, which covers GP care, hospital treatment and subsidised specialist care against a co-payment (ticket). Private policies in Italy are supplementary, bought mainly to skip public waiting lists, not a replacement. Non-residents on a digital-nomad or elective-residence visa must instead hold private travel/health insurance for the visa itself.
Optimising tax, banking and crypto rules.
Works in your favour
Crypto regulationLegal regulated
Official source
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Notes
- Legal and fully regulated, but taxed harder than most of Europe from 2026: the substitute tax on crypto capital gains (art. 67(1)(c-sexies) TUIR) rose from 26% to 33% on gains realised from 1 January 2026, and the previous €2,000 annual exemption threshold was abolished from 2025 — so the first euro of gain is taxable. Euro-denominated e-money tokens stay at 26%. Service providers operate under the EU MiCA regime, supervised by CONSOB and the Bank of Italy. Note that the regime forfettario's substitute tax does not cover capital gains: crypto is declared separately in quadro RT whatever your business regime.
Financial control levelLow
Official source
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2023
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Method
- Composite: Italy uses the euro, with EU free movement of capital and no exchange or capital controls. The binding constraints are ordinary anti-money-laundering rules — a ceiling on cash transfers between parties (art. 49 of D.Lgs. 231/2007), a reporting duty on large cash tourism sales, and the RW section of the tax return, in which residents must declare foreign accounts and assets including crypto. Non-resident banking is available with standard KYC. None of this restricts moving your own money, so the classification is 'low', the same as France and Spain.
- Notes
- Two official sources disagree on the general cash ceiling and we flag rather than hide it: the 2023 Budget Law (law 197/2022) raised it from €1,000 to €5,000 from 1 January 2023, and this Agenzia delle Entrate page tracks that by setting the tourism cash-sale reporting threshold at €5,000 ('previously €1,000 until 2025'), while the Treasury's own prevention-of-financial-crime FAQ still displays €1,000 as the limit in force since 2022. Either figure lands Italy in the same band. Worth knowing separately: Italy's declaration duty for foreign-held assets is broad, and penalties for undeclared foreign accounts are real.
Watch-outs
Freelancer tax burden24.9%
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Method
- Best eligible scheme at €60,000 revenue for an IT freelancer = it-forfettario-it-67. Taxable base 67% × 60,000 = 40,200 (ATECO group 9 coefficient; expenses never reduce the base). INPS Gestione Separata 26.07% = 10,480.14, deducted from the forfeitary income → 29,719.86. Imposta sostitutiva 15% = 4,457.98. Levies 14,938.12 → 24.9%. The first five years of a new activity run at 5% instead (19.9%); the ordinary IRPEF route on the same profile is near 41%.
Prioritising safety, air, and an easy daily life.
Works in your favour
Homicide rate0.57/100k
Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB)
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Notes
- Police-recorded intentional homicide, 2024 (2023 was also 0.57). Dataset last updated by Eurostat 2026-04-29. Among the safest large countries in Europe — roughly half the French rate and a fifth of the global average — and down from 1.05 in 2008.
Air quality (PM2.5)12.7 µg/m³
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Row "Firenze/ITA", year 2024, pm25_concentration 12.665 µg/m³ at 93% temporal coverage, from five stations — one suburban background, two urban background and two urban traffic. The row aggregates a station centroid of 43.78002°N 11.27284°E, about 1.2 km north of the centre, over a footprint of 366,927 people against the 361,625 comune population, so this is a city-proper reading rather than a metropolitan one.
- Notes
- Two and a half times the WHO 2021 guideline of 5 µg/m³, inside the current EU limit of 25 and above the 2030 EU limit of 10. Cleaner than Milan and Bologna, close to Rome. The series is flat rather than falling — 13.36 in 2020, 12.07 in 2021, 13.13 in 2022, 12.53 in 2023, 12.67 in 2024 — so Florence has not repeated the Po Valley's recent improvement, but it started from a much lower base.
Cost of living (single, excl. rent)$1,093/mo
ISTAT — Spese per consumi delle famiglie, Anno 2024 (Prospetto 4, tavole allegate)
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 28, 2026
- Method
- ISTAT household budget survey 2024: average monthly household spending €2,755.09, of which imputed rent (affitti figurativi) €617.39 → monetary spending €2,137.70. Actual rentals removed using Italy's 2025 HICP weight for COICOP 04.1 (29.51 per 1,000 = 2.951%, Eurostat prc_hicp_inw) = €63.08 → €2,074.62 excluding all rent. Divided by the average household size of 2.2 (Eurostat ilc_lvph01) = €943.01 per person per month; uplifted by HICP annual averages 2024→2025 (122.3 → 124.3, ×1.0164) = €958.43; converted at 1 EUR = 1.1399 USD (ECB, 2026-07-02) → $1,093.
- Notes
- Per-capita basis, to match how Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. ISTAT also publishes the real single-person household basket, which is what a solo mover actually faces: €1,931.70/month total, €1,347.48 after removing imputed and actual rent — about $1,561/month on the same uplift and FX. A person living alone has no household economies of scale, so read the $1,093 as the comparable cross-country figure and the $1,561 as the realistic personal one. No extrapolation into 2026 was applied beyond the 2025 annual average.
Watch-outs
Climate comfort6/12 mo
SettleMetric — computed from the Firenze Peretola 1991–2020 WMO normals
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2020
- Verified
- Aug 28, 2026
- Method
- Months whose 1991–2020 normals have a mean daily maximum of 15–28°C and under 150 mm of precipitation: March, April, May, September, October, November = 6. June, July and August are excluded for heat (29.1, 32.3 and 32.4°C) and December to February for cold. No month is excluded for rain.
16
Video reviews
Hand-picked YouTube tours and living-here guides — each one checked to still play.
I moved to Florence alone: five things I wish I had known
Flora in Italy · An honest first year
17
Compare Florence
Full country picture:
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