Quality of life in Italian cities: where people live better
Milan gets the silver medal
The Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore has recently published the 26th edition of its annual charter on the "Quality of Life" in Italy.
Milan made a great performance in the last year. In fact, compared to 2014 when the city was ranked 8th, in 2015 the Lombard metropolis reached the podium, achieving the second position. This great success is partly due to Expo2015 that marked an extraordinary increase in the parameter "standard of living".
Going then to the poles apart of the chart, Bolzano is the best city to live while Reggio Calabria was identified as the worst. Prato was selected as the best city for business while the Capital, Rome, lost four positions in 2015 (currently being 16th). The Sole 24 Ore Chart seems quite strict on its main requirements, analysing the cities on six main thematic areas of liveability. Namely, services/environment/health, population, public order, free time, life standard, business and job.
The total number of indicators for the different areas is 36. In fact, Milan was able to achieve the title of "Italian Capital of Life Standard" thanks to the wealth indicators (GDP, pensions) but also thanks to the services and leisure activities options. On the other hand, Milan - as all big cities - appears less performing on the security realm.
In general, the top 10 positions of the chart seem dominated by the cities of the North and Centre. A common characteristic among them is the limited dimension (having Milan and Florence as exceptions) and their position on the Alps. Furthermore, the most represented regions turned out to be Lombardy and Tuscany.
Nevertheless, an eminent voice of Italian public scene, Dario Fo (artist, playwright, comedian and singer) claimed that Milan should not be considered among the most liveable cities. In fact, Mr. Fo argues on the Italian daily Corriere della Sera that a "city where deaths by pollution are four times higher than other cities" cannot be considered the 2nd Italian best place to live.
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