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 division, demographic statistics and living conditions
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
ISTAT - Viale Liegi 13, 00198 Roma . 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
26 August 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
26 August 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
26 August 2025
3.1. Data description
Total usually resident population for the purposes of qualified majority voting in the Council.
The official resident population of Italy at 31th December year t is released by Istat usually at the end of December of the year t+1, in line with the results of Permanent Census. The related data and metadata are usually sent to Eurostat in occasion of the DEMOBAL data collection. A first provisional estimate is also available at the end of March of the year t+1.
In order to assess which specific population groups have to be included in addition to the official resident population of Italy, provided that the conditions of duration of residence are met, the CES Recommendations for the execution of the 2010 Censuses (Geneva, 2006) were examined. The analysis revealed that the following groups of people are not actually covered in the official population of Italy:
a) National military, naval and diplomatic personnel and their families located outside the country (MD)
b) Persons who may be illegal, irregular or undocumented migrants (IL)
c) EU workers with a regular employment contract who are not also present in the population register and who have spent most of the year in Italy (at least 7 months or at least 6 months including December 2022) (AC)
d) non-EU citizens with regular permit of stay (lasting more than one year) who are not also present in the population register (Ukrainian citizens under temporary protection excluded) (AX)
e) Ukrainian citizens under temporary protection who are not also present in the population register (UK)
The other recommended groups of population, to be or not to be included, are already present in the national definition (e.g. Homeless or roofless persons) or not considered (e.g. Tertiary students attending courses abroad).
From the referece year 2024, the component:
a) National military, naval and diplomatic personnel and their families located outside the country (MD)
is no longer available, as the new legislation no longer requires Italians abroad to register with AIRE (Anagrafe degli Italiani Residenti all'Estero). Registration with AIRE remains voluntary.
Then, the Qualified majority voting population (QMVP) is obtained as follows:
QMVP=P+IL+AC+AX+UK
where P is the provisional official resident population of Italy at 31 december.
The estimate of IL is based on the construction of an impact rate by single citizenship (EU excluded), defined as the ratio between the number of people found in a position of illegal/irregular/undocumented residence during the year and the number of people regularly immigrated in the same year and of the same citizenship. The numerator of the ratio is defined by cross-referencing the following data from the Ministry of the Interior: 1) unauthorized persons stopped at the country's border; 2) persons not in possession of regular residence documentation stopped within the country by police authorities and who were ordered to leave the country; 3) persons actually repatriated to their country of origin. The denominator of the ratio comes from official immigration statistics as documented by registrations in the population register. Finally, the estimated number of illegally resident citizens is obtained, for each citizenship, by multiplying the impact rate by the stock of regular residents.
The AC and AX components in equation QMVP, regard groups of foreign citizens not overlapping the previous ones. They include both EU and Non EU citizens, not enrolled in any population register but fulfilling the concept of at least a year of effective/intended usual residence in the Country. The residual of foreign Non EU citizens has been obtained running a record linkage between the Individual List of Resident Citizens maintained at Istat (ANVIS) and the Permits of stay database, while the residual of foreign EU citizens has been obtained running a record linkage between ANVIS and the Archive of the security contributions of workers, maintained at INPS - National Institute of Social Security.
The last component, UK, concerns Ukrainian citizens who are not also on the population register. It was obtained through a record linkage between ANVIS and the residence permit archive.
3.2. Classification system
Not applicable.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Total usually resident population at national level.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
QMVP=P+MD*+IL+AC+AX+UK
where P is the official resident population of Italy (provisional, last update March 2025). The other groups of people not actually covered in the official population of Italy are:
Illegal, irregular, undocumented people (IL);
EU workers with a regular employment contract who are not also present in the population register and who have spent most of the year in Italy (at least 7 months or at least 6 months including December 2023) (AC);
Non-EU citizens with regular permit of stay (lasting more than one year) who are not also present in the population register (Ukrainian citizens under temporary protection excluded)(AX)
d) Ukrainian citizens under temporary protection who are not also present in the population register (UK)
(*) Please note that the component:
Military and diplomatic personnel located outside national borders (MD);
is no longer available as of this year, as the new legislation no longer requires Italians abroad to register with AIRE (Anagrafe degli Italiani Residenti all'Estero). Registration with AIRE remains voluntary.
3.5. Statistical unit
Person.
3.6. Statistical population
Population register and other administrative sources
3.7. Reference area
Data are available at national level.
3.8. Coverage - Time
31 December 2024
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Person.
The reference date for population data is the end of the reference period (midnight of 31 December).
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Not applicable.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Not applicable.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Not applicable.
8.1. Release calendar
Not applicable.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable.
8.3. Release policy - user access
Not applicable.
Annual.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Not applicable.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Not applicable.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Not applicable.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Not applicable.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not applicable.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
For more information, see the annex sheet: 10.6.1.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Not applicable.
11.1. Quality assurance
As for the official resident population (see point 3.1 Data description) data are checked before being uploaded into the database and disseminated to the public. The validation rules are established to ensure the data consistency and comparability along time of indicators. As for the other databases and samples used in order to derive the QMVP standard rules of data checking and validation are applied.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
1. Nationals
Please indicate the type of duration of stay when counting a person with national citizenship as an usual resident with a minimum duration of stay of 12 months according to Art. 2(d) of Reg. 1260/2013.
1. Actual
2. Intended
3. Actual and intended
4. Other. Please specify below:
No
No
Yes
No
2. EEA Citizens
Please indicate the type of duration of stay when counting a person with EEA citizenship as an usual resident with a minimum duration of stay of 12 months according to Art. 2(d) of Reg. 1260/2013.
1. Actual
2. Intended
3. Actual and intended
4. Other. Please specify below:
No
No
Yes
No
3. NON-EEA Citizens
Please indicate the type of duration of stay when counting a person with non-EEA foreign citizenship as an usual resident with a minimum duration of stay of 12 months according to Art. 2(d) of Reg. 1260/2013.
1. Actual
2. Intended
3. Actual and intended
4. Other. Please specify below:
No
No
Yes
No
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Data requested in Art. 4.1 of Reg. 1260/2013.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not applicable.
12.3. Completeness
Data transmitted as requested in Art. 4.1 of Reg. 1260/2013.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
See point 3.1.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
For the purposes of qualified majority voting in the Council, Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with data on the total population at national level at the reference time, in accordance with Article 2 ( c ), within eight months of the end of the reference year.
14.2. Punctuality
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Not applicable.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The total usually resident population transmitted by the national statistical offices to Eurostat in the framework of the Usually Resident Population data collection may differ from those available in National Accounts, Labour Force Survey or in the survey on Income and Living Conditions. The difference is given by the population coverage (see metadata specific to each domain).
15.4. Coherence - internal
The total usually resident population transmitted by the national statistical offices to Eurostat in the framework of the Usually Resident Population data collection may differ from those available in the rest of the Demographic domain. The difference is given by the population definition (see metadata specific to each domain).
The definition of a metodology to the QMVP purposes and the related elaborations requested 1 full time person for five months.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Not applicable.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
See point 3.1 Data description.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual.
18.3. Data collection
See point 3.1 Data description.
18.4. Data validation
Coherence control between data from different sources and surveys.
18.5. Data compilation
Data from Istat are generally collected through electronic internet forms.
18.6. Adjustment
The final result of the above described procedure shows that for Italy the Qualified Majority Voting Population is given by:
QMVP=P+IL+AC+AX+UK.
The impact of the adjustment in order to obtain the QMVP from the national definition of usual residence is about one per cent.
Total usually resident population for the purposes of qualified majority voting in the Council.
The official resident population of Italy at 31th December year t is released by Istat usually at the end of December of the year t+1, in line with the results of Permanent Census. The related data and metadata are usually sent to Eurostat in occasion of the DEMOBAL data collection. A first provisional estimate is also available at the end of March of the year t+1.
In order to assess which specific population groups have to be included in addition to the official resident population of Italy, provided that the conditions of duration of residence are met, the CES Recommendations for the execution of the 2010 Censuses (Geneva, 2006) were examined. The analysis revealed that the following groups of people are not actually covered in the official population of Italy:
a) National military, naval and diplomatic personnel and their families located outside the country (MD)
b) Persons who may be illegal, irregular or undocumented migrants (IL)
c) EU workers with a regular employment contract who are not also present in the population register and who have spent most of the year in Italy (at least 7 months or at least 6 months including December 2022) (AC)
d) non-EU citizens with regular permit of stay (lasting more than one year) who are not also present in the population register (Ukrainian citizens under temporary protection excluded) (AX)
e) Ukrainian citizens under temporary protection who are not also present in the population register (UK)
The other recommended groups of population, to be or not to be included, are already present in the national definition (e.g. Homeless or roofless persons) or not considered (e.g. Tertiary students attending courses abroad).
From the referece year 2024, the component:
a) National military, naval and diplomatic personnel and their families located outside the country (MD)
is no longer available, as the new legislation no longer requires Italians abroad to register with AIRE (Anagrafe degli Italiani Residenti all'Estero). Registration with AIRE remains voluntary.
Then, the Qualified majority voting population (QMVP) is obtained as follows:
QMVP=P+IL+AC+AX+UK
where P is the provisional official resident population of Italy at 31 december.
The estimate of IL is based on the construction of an impact rate by single citizenship (EU excluded), defined as the ratio between the number of people found in a position of illegal/irregular/undocumented residence during the year and the number of people regularly immigrated in the same year and of the same citizenship. The numerator of the ratio is defined by cross-referencing the following data from the Ministry of the Interior: 1) unauthorized persons stopped at the country's border; 2) persons not in possession of regular residence documentation stopped within the country by police authorities and who were ordered to leave the country; 3) persons actually repatriated to their country of origin. The denominator of the ratio comes from official immigration statistics as documented by registrations in the population register. Finally, the estimated number of illegally resident citizens is obtained, for each citizenship, by multiplying the impact rate by the stock of regular residents.
The AC and AX components in equation QMVP, regard groups of foreign citizens not overlapping the previous ones. They include both EU and Non EU citizens, not enrolled in any population register but fulfilling the concept of at least a year of effective/intended usual residence in the Country. The residual of foreign Non EU citizens has been obtained running a record linkage between the Individual List of Resident Citizens maintained at Istat (ANVIS) and the Permits of stay database, while the residual of foreign EU citizens has been obtained running a record linkage between ANVIS and the Archive of the security contributions of workers, maintained at INPS - National Institute of Social Security.
The last component, UK, concerns Ukrainian citizens who are not also on the population register. It was obtained through a record linkage between ANVIS and the residence permit archive.
26 August 2025
QMVP=P+MD*+IL+AC+AX+UK
where P is the official resident population of Italy (provisional, last update March 2025). The other groups of people not actually covered in the official population of Italy are:
Illegal, irregular, undocumented people (IL);
EU workers with a regular employment contract who are not also present in the population register and who have spent most of the year in Italy (at least 7 months or at least 6 months including December 2023) (AC);
Non-EU citizens with regular permit of stay (lasting more than one year) who are not also present in the population register (Ukrainian citizens under temporary protection excluded)(AX)
d) Ukrainian citizens under temporary protection who are not also present in the population register (UK)
(*) Please note that the component:
Military and diplomatic personnel located outside national borders (MD);
is no longer available as of this year, as the new legislation no longer requires Italians abroad to register with AIRE (Anagrafe degli Italiani Residenti all'Estero). Registration with AIRE remains voluntary.
Person.
Population register and other administrative sources
Data are available at national level.
The reference date for population data is the end of the reference period (midnight of 31 December).
See point 3.1.
Person.
Data from Istat are generally collected through electronic internet forms.
See point 3.1 Data description.
Annual.
For the purposes of qualified majority voting in the Council, Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with data on the total population at national level at the reference time, in accordance with Article 2 ( c ), within eight months of the end of the reference year.
