Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Population register, demographic statistics and life conditions
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
Viale Liegi 13
00198 Rome
ITALY
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
18 December 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
18 December 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
18 December 2025
3.1. Data description
Data and metadata are transmitted to Eurostat by the Member States in the framework of the Unified Demographic Data Collection which is in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 and their implementing regulations.
The regional breakdown of the Member States in the regional demographic tables is done under the most recent NUTS classification.
There are agreements between Eurostat and Candidate countries as well as between Eurostat and EFTA countries, for which statistical regions have been coded in a way that resembles NUTS.
For more information on the versions in force, please see: Eurostat NUTS.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Not applicable.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
3.4.1 Statistical concepts and definitions used in the statistics transmitted to Eurostat One of the following definitions is used by a country when explaining the statistical concepts: Usually resident population means all persons having their usual residence in a Member State at the reference time; for more information see the Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 1260/2013 Legal residence population is composed of those persons who are entitled to be settled in the country at the reference date, either by holding the national citizenship or by other authorization issued by national authorities. Registered residence population is composed of those persons who are listed on one or more registers owned by national authorities at the reference date. Each registered person shall be counted only once. See the table 3.4.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
3.4.2 Statistical concepts and definitions used in the statistics disseminated in the National Statistical Institute's website See the table 3.4.2 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
3.5. Statistical unit
Number of persons.
3.6. Statistical population
See the table 3.6 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
3.7. Reference area
Population, live births and deaths data are available at national and regional level of geographical detail.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Population: since 1926.
Live births: since 1926.
Deaths: since 1926.
Immigrants: since 1926.
Emigrants: since 1926.
Acquisition of citizenship: since 1993.
Legally induced abortions: since 1979.
Marriage: since 1995.
Divorces: since 1971.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Data is collected at unit (person) level.
The reference date for population data is the end of the reference period (midnight of 31 December). The reference period for vital and dual events data is the calendar year in which the events occurred. The reference period for migration flow data is the calendar year during which the migration occurred.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
The Italian National Statistical System (SISTAN) is the network of public and private subjects that provides official statistical information.
Established by Law n. 322 of 1989, SISTAN includes: the National Statistical Institute (ISTAT); public statistical bodies and organizations (INEA, ISFOL); the statistical offices of the State administrations and other public bodies, the territorial Offices of the Government, the Regions and Autonomous Provinces, the Provinces, the Chambers of Commerce (CCIAA), the Municipalities, individual or associated, and the statistical offices of other public and private institutions that perform functions of public interest.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Law No 322 of 1989 establishes how data can be shared between members of SISTAN.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Law 196/2003 on privacy protection.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Not applicable.
8.1. Release calendar
Only some demographic statistics have a fixed calendar. Among them, data on Birth and fertility (October) and on Census of Population and demographic trend (December).
The other demographic statistics follow a variable release schedule: Migrations, Deaths, Marriages et al. are disseminated at the end of the year.
The calendar of releases and events, complete with press releases for the entire year, is updated on a weekly basis with the dates of all press releases, publication of editorial products, events and database updates.
See the table 11.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
11.2.1. Quality assessment: Type of duration of stay used when counting a person as a migrant according to Art. 2(b) of Regulation (EC) 862/2007 See the table 11.2.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
11.2.2. Quality assessment of the definition of acquisitions of citizenship according to Art. 3(d) of Regulation (EC) 862/2007 See the table 11.2.2 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Not applicable.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not applicable.
12.3. Completeness
Not applicable.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Overall accuracy and special cases (inclusion/exclusion of asylum seekers and refugees, persons living on unauthorised or irregular basis, international students, persons who do not register/deregister, etc.). See the table 13.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
13.1.1 Accuracy - unknown values See the table 13.1.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
13.2. Sampling error
See the table 13.3 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
13.3. Non-sampling error
See the table 13.3 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
14.1. Timeliness
According to Article 4 (2) of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 205/2014, each year Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with data at national and regional level as described in Annex II and related standard reference metadata (in the metadata structure definition defined for the Euro SDMX Metadata Structure) for the reference year within 12 months of the end of the reference year. According to Article 3 (2) of the Commission Regulation (EU) No 862/2007, Statistics on international migration, usually resident population and acquisition of citizenship shall be supplied to the Commission (Eurostat) within 12 months of the end of the reference year.
14.2. Punctuality
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Full comparability.
15.2. Comparability - over time
See the table 15.2 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The differences between Residence Permits (RP) and International Migration (IM) Statistics are due:
to the different length of stay: RP consider only long-term permits, while even people holding a short-term permit can be enrolled in the Population register. Many people with a short permit (<12 months) stay more than 1 year since they renew the permit.
RP are granted only to non EU citizens.
15.4. Coherence - internal
See Data revision.
Cost of data collection and cost of data production.
Legal and institutional burden for Municipalities.
17.1. Data revision - policy
The overall – not only internal, but also cross-domain – coherence of the population data (point 17), as well as the revision policy of the population series (point 19), are strictly consistent with the overall accuracy requirements recalled at point 14, as to resetting the base vector of the post-censual population accounting procedure.
17.2. Data revision - practice
See 17.1.
18.1. Source data
See the table 18.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Data are collected on daily basis.
18.3. Data collection
See point 18.1
18.4. Data validation
As far as population is concerned it is obtained from the Census results of the Permanent Population Census.
It is based on the combination of sample surveys and data from administrative sources; it is carried out every year and it is included in the Integrated System of Statistical Registers managed by the ISTAT.
The fulcrum of the whole system is the Basic Register of Individuals (RBI) which constitutes the basic infrastructure for the production of demographic statistics and the universe for the extraction of the surveys’ samples envisaged for the Permanent Census (see Census Law and Plan General Census) and all samples surveys on families. The RBI is “consolidated” annually with reference to 31 December. This consolidation is achieved through a demographic accounting model (MIDEA - Micro-DEmographic Accounting) based on the count of microdata (data on births, deaths and internal and international migration)
The alignment with Census data occurs following an adjustment of the RBI’s over and under-coverage by means of the "signal of life" methodology performed by the Permanent Census. The "corrected" RBI ensures the alignment of Census data with those of demographic statistics and allows to provide timely estimates of the main outputs on the population.
With regard to flows, we proceed as follows:
Identification and elimination of duplicates through individual identification variables.
Deterministic modification of data to ensure consistency between intra-record variables.
Imputation of missing data using the “Nearest neighbor imputation” technique.
Data and metadata are transmitted to Eurostat by the Member States in the framework of the Unified Demographic Data Collection which is in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 and their implementing regulations.
3.4.1 Statistical concepts and definitions used in the statistics transmitted to Eurostat One of the following definitions is used by a country when explaining the statistical concepts: Usually resident population means all persons having their usual residence in a Member State at the reference time; for more information see the Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 1260/2013 Legal residence population is composed of those persons who are entitled to be settled in the country at the reference date, either by holding the national citizenship or by other authorization issued by national authorities. Registered residence population is composed of those persons who are listed on one or more registers owned by national authorities at the reference date. Each registered person shall be counted only once. See the table 3.4.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
3.4.2 Statistical concepts and definitions used in the statistics disseminated in the National Statistical Institute's website See the table 3.4.2 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
Number of persons.
See the table 3.6 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
Population, live births and deaths data are available at national and regional level of geographical detail.
The reference date for population data is the end of the reference period (midnight of 31 December). The reference period for vital and dual events data is the calendar year in which the events occurred. The reference period for migration flow data is the calendar year during which the migration occurred.
Overall accuracy and special cases (inclusion/exclusion of asylum seekers and refugees, persons living on unauthorised or irregular basis, international students, persons who do not register/deregister, etc.). See the table 13.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
13.1.1 Accuracy - unknown values See the table 13.1.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
Data is collected at unit (person) level.
See point 18.4.
See the table 18.1 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
Data on population and demographic statistics are disseminated annually.
According to Article 4 (2) of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 205/2014, each year Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with data at national and regional level as described in Annex II and related standard reference metadata (in the metadata structure definition defined for the Euro SDMX Metadata Structure) for the reference year within 12 months of the end of the reference year. According to Article 3 (2) of the Commission Regulation (EU) No 862/2007, Statistics on international migration, usually resident population and acquisition of citizenship shall be supplied to the Commission (Eurostat) within 12 months of the end of the reference year.
Full comparability.
See the table 15.2 in the annex POPSTAT_UNIESMS_A.
