The Quality of Life Index 2022 Names Bologna as Best Place to Live in Italy

UMBERTO MUCCI
We The Italians Magazine

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The 33rd edition of the Italian newspaper il Sole 24 Ore's Quality of Life survey crowns Bologna. For the fifth time, the capital of Emilia-Romagna takes the victory, but Bolzano and Florence are also on the podium. Bologna had also won in 2000, 2004, 2011 and 2020. Florence climbs eight positions from last year, while Milan is in eighth place.

Roma and Torino, on the other hand, worsen their performance. The capital loses 18 positions, and among its critical issues are civil cases registered with the court. The Piedmontese capital ranks 40th, Palermo 88th and Napoli 98th - penalized by poor air quality and the incidence of reported crimes among which the real scourge is street crime.

To recap, then, the ten Italian cities where Quality of Life is better according to the Sole 24 Ore ranking are: Bologna, Bolzano, Firenze, Siena, Trento, Aosta, Trieste, Milano, Parma and Pisa. These are followed by Cremona, Udine, Reggio Emilia, Bergamo, Sondrio, Verona, Modena, Cagliari, Gorizia, and Venezia.

The worst ten for quality of life, however, are Crotone, Isernia, Caltanissetta, Foggia, Vibo Valentia, Reggio Calabria, Taranto, Enna, Caserta, and Napoli followed by Salerno, Catanzaro, Cosenza, Potenza, Trapani, Brindisi, Catania, Siracusa, Messina, and Palermo.

The newspaper explains that the performance of metropolitan cities is deteriorating. Criticism of large cities is particularly concerned with high rents and the welfare of younger generations. While the positions from 81st to 107th are all occupied by southern provinces. Calabrian cities are all found from 95th position onwards. The first ones encountered outside the South are Latina (80th) and Frosinone (79th). Rovigo, the first northern province, is 77th.

On the indicator domains, the podium sees Belluno, Bologna, and Bolzano at the top for wealth and consumption. For business and labor: Milano, Trieste, and Roma. For demographics, health and society: Bologna, Modena, and Roma. For environment and services: Pisa, Siena, and Aosta. For justice and security: Oristano, Pordenone, and Sondrio. For culture and leisure: Firenze, Trieste, and Gorizia.

Also, according to the ranking, to offer greater well-being to women is the province of Monza and Brianza, followed by Treviso and Cagliari. The province of Monza has the lowest gender employment gap in Italy (at 7.1 percent against a national average of 19.4 percent), one of the highest female employment rates in the country (69 percent), and the record number of days paid to female employees (75.3 percent of the theoretical maximum).