When it comes to safety in Italy, perception and data often tell two different stories. The news focuses on big cities, but when reported crimes are measured against population, unexpected geographies emerge: small provinces climbing the crime rankings and southern provincial capitals among the calmest territories in the country.
In this analysis we line up provincial-level crime data: total offences, thefts, robberies, homicides and fraud, always expressed per 100,000 inhabitants to make territories of very different sizes comparable. One important clarification: all the rankings in this article concern provinces, not individual municipalities. The provincial figure aggregates crimes reported across the whole territory, from the capital city to the smallest villages. The comparison covers 50 Italian provinces for which data is available.
Why the rate per 100,000 inhabitants changes everything
In absolute terms, Rome and Milan dominate any crime statistic: in 2024 the province of Rome recorded 271,779 offences and Milan 226,860. But Rome and Milan are also Italy's most populous territories, and counting crimes without considering how many people live in and enter those areas every day says little about real risk.
The rate per 100,000 inhabitants normalises the comparison. And this is where the ranking flips: at the top there is no metropolis but Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, a small Piedmontese province on the Swiss border, with 9,585 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants. Second comes Barletta-Andria-Trani with 8,505. Milan, third with 6,974, is the first large metropolitan area, followed by Florence with 6,566 and Rome with 6,433.
The Verbano-Cusio-Ossola case deserves a careful reading: in a small province, a relatively limited number of reports in absolute terms, 14,634 in 2024, produces a very high rate. Cross-border and tourist flows also weigh in, inflating crime counts without appearing in the resident denominator. It is a useful reminder: the rate per 100,000 inhabitants is the most honest tool we have, but no indicator should be read in isolation.
The 15 provinces with the most reported crimes
Total offences per 100,000 inhabitants, latest available year
The provinces with the most crime: not just metropolises
The top of the ranking mixes two profiles. On one side, large urban and tourist areas, Milan, Florence, Rome, where the density of people, commuters and visitors multiplies the opportunities for crime, especially predatory crime. On the other, small and medium provinces such as Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Barletta-Andria-Trani and Asti, where high rates reflect specific local dynamics, from thefts in commercial areas to fraud.
Striking is the absence, at the top, of many southern provinces that the collective imagination would associate with crime. Organised crime in fact generates relatively few police reports: the offences that dominate these statistics are the widespread, reportable ones, thefts, fraud, vandalism, more frequent where there is more wealth to steal and more trust in the institutions to report to. The propensity to report also varies from territory to territory and is a lens to keep in mind.
Italy's 15 safest provinces
Total offences per 100,000 inhabitants, from the lowest value
The safest provinces: Cuneo without rivals
Italy's safest province is Cuneo, with just 727 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants: less than one thirteenth of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and about half the second-ranked Novara at 1,453. The vast Piedmontese province, with its population spread across small and medium towns and a solid economy, confirms itself as a case study in safety.
On the podium of the safest there is also Oristano with 1,609 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Potenza with 2,022 and Benevento with 2,257. This dismantles the stereotype linking the South to insecurity: among Italy's ten calmest provinces are Oristano, Potenza, Benevento, Enna and Cosenza, alongside Alpine and foothill territories such as Sondrio, Treviso, Pordenone and Belluno. The inner areas of the South and the mountains of the North share the same profile: cohesive communities, low density, little predatory crime.
Crimes reported in Italy, 2019-2024
National total of crimes reported to the police per year
The national trend: the 2020 collapse and the rebound
The national time series clearly shows the pandemic effect. In 2019, 2,327,163 crimes were reported in Italy; in 2020, with lockdowns emptying streets, shops and public transport, reports collapsed to 1,921,440, more than 400,000 fewer in a single year. Thefts, the offence most sensitive to people and goods in circulation, fell from 1,086,784 to 732,043.
Since then the rebound has been constant: 2,128,774 crimes in 2021, 2,282,208 in 2022, 2,368,526 in 2023, up to 2,429,760 in 2024, the highest value of the whole period, about 4 percent above the pre-pandemic level. The normalisation of social life brought predatory crime back with it, and some categories, as we will see with fraud, have grown well beyond 2019 levels.
Thefts: the 10 hardest-hit provinces
Thefts reported per 100,000 inhabitants
Robberies: the 10 hardest-hit provinces
Robberies reported per 100,000 inhabitants
Thefts and robberies: the geography of predatory crime
Thefts make up almost half of all reported offences: 1,069,169 in 2024 out of 2,429,760 total. The provincial ranking is led by Barletta-Andria-Trani with 3,959 thefts per 100,000 inhabitants, closely followed by Milan with 3,712 and Rome with 3,682. Right behind, once again, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola with 3,637.
Robberies, which unlike thefts involve violence or threat, draw a more urban map. Milan leads with 138 robberies per 100,000 inhabitants, ahead of Florence with 111, Barletta-Andria-Trani with 110 and Bologna with 106. Nationally, 29,119 robberies were reported in 2024, up from 24,607 in 2019: one of the few categories of violent crime to have clearly exceeded pre-pandemic levels, a signal big cities know well.
Fraud and cybercrime: the 10 hardest-hit provinces
Fraud cases reported per 100,000 inhabitants
Fraud: the crime growing in the digital era
Fraud and online scams are the new face of crime: no dark alleys needed, just a connection. At the top of the ranking is once again Verbano-Cusio-Ossola with 1,303 fraud cases reported per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Barletta-Andria-Trani with 1,269 and Asti with 1,156. Cagliari, fourth with 783, is the first island province.
The distribution of fraud is much more uniform than that of thefts and robberies, because the crime travels online and strikes wherever there are potential victims, often elderly people. Even in the most virtuous province, Cuneo, there are still 192 fraud cases per 100,000 inhabitants: no territory is truly sheltered. It is the crime category where prevention, from digital education to personal data protection, can make the biggest difference in the coming years.
The regions of the 50 ranked provinces
Regional distribution of the provinces ranked by total crimes per 100,000 inhabitants
Homicides: Italy remains one of the safest countries
Voluntary homicides, the most serious and also rarest crime, deserve a separate chapter. In 2024 Italy recorded 327, slightly down from 342 in 2023 and similar to the 319 of 2019: in historical and international perspective, Italy remains one of the countries with the fewest homicides in the world relative to population.
Precisely because of their rarity, provincial homicide rankings must be read with great caution: in a small province, two or three cases in a year are enough to produce a high rate. Nuoro leads with 2.6 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, corresponding however to just 5 cases; Verbano-Cusio-Ossola follows with 2 and Cagliari with 1.9. Numbers this small swing widely from year to year and do not describe structural danger.
How to read this data
Three final caveats. First: the data measures reported crimes, not committed ones; the propensity to report varies by territory and crime type. Second: the denominator is the resident population, so in areas with heavy tourist or commuter flows the rate is inflated. Third: these rankings concern provinces, while on DatiItalia you will also find the municipality-by-municipality analysis of road safety, which tells another, complementary, dimension of safety across Italian territories.