There is an Italy where the mayor knows every single voter by name, because the voters number a few dozen. The country's smallest municipality is Morterone, in the province of Lecco: 32 inhabitants as of 1 January 2025, one town hall, one church and a handful of houses beneath the Resegone. It is no isolated case: in Italy, 67 municipalities have fewer than 100 inhabitants and 460 have fewer than 300.
This article explores the Italy of micro-municipalities: where they are, why they still exist and what their demographics tell us.
The Ranking of the Smallest
After Morterone (32 inhabitants) come Pedesina, in Valtellina, with 37 inhabitants, and Briga Alta, in the province of Cuneo, with 40. Then Macra (42), Ingria (44), Rocca de' Giorgi (45), followed by Ribordone and Cervatto at 47, Moncenisio and Torresina at 48. The top ten is entirely concentrated between Piedmont and Lombardy: Alpine and Apennine valleys emptied by twentieth-century emigration.
The geography is striking: the Italian micro-municipality is not (only) a southern phenomenon. The valleys of western Piedmont and Alpine Lombardy host Europe's highest density of tiny town halls, the legacy of an ancient administrative fragmentation that depopulation turned into a statistical record.
The 15 least populated municipalities in Italy
Resident population as of 1 January 2025. Source: ISTAT.
Below the 200 Mark: An Italy of 250 Town Halls
Widening the view beyond the top ten, the numbers give the measure of the phenomenon. Italian municipalities with fewer than 150 inhabitants number 148; those below 200 inhabitants are 250. It means that roughly one Italian municipality in thirty has a population that would fit comfortably in a Milanese apartment block. And even the five-hundredth smallest municipality counts just 316 residents.
Within these numbers are very different stories. Castelmagno, in the province of Cuneo, 51 inhabitants, is the home of one of Italy's most celebrated cheeses. Bergolo, 52 inhabitants in the Langhe, reinvented itself as an artists' village. Moncenisio, 48 inhabitants on the French border, was a stop on the Alpine Via Francigena. Cervatto, in Valsesia, and Ribordone, in Canavese, survive as summer retreats: in winter the actual inhabitants fall even below the registry figure.
The common thread is the mountains: almost all the municipalities under 100 inhabitants sit above 700 metres of altitude, where hillside farming has disappeared and tourism is not enough to keep the young.
From 46 to 59 Million: But Not for Everyone
The paradox of the micro-municipalities becomes clear when looking at the national historical series. From 1951 to 2026, Italy's population grew from 46.3 to 58.9 million inhabitants. But that growth concentrated in the cities and the plains: over the same period, the Alpine valleys and the Apennines were emptying out. Morterone, Pedesina and the others are the survivors of that exodus: municipalities that lost 70-90% of their residents compared with their early-twentieth-century peak, without ever dissolving.
Since 2014 the decline has become national: Italy loses inhabitants every year (from the 60.3 million peak it has fallen to 58.9), and the pressure on small municipalities has grown even stronger. We covered this in our analysis of Italy's depopulating municipalities: today's micro-municipalities are the vanguard of a phenomenon that now affects half the country.
Italy's population at the censuses, 1951-2026
Resident population in Italy, decennial censuses up to 2011 and recent annual data. Source: ISTAT.
The Map of Empty Italy
The density map below shows where Italy's population concentrates and, in negative, where the Italy of micro-municipalities lies. The dark areas — the Po Valley, the coastal strip, the metropolitan areas of Roma, Napoli and Milano — concentrate the overwhelming majority of the 58.9 million residents. The pale areas trace the Apennine ridge and the Alpine arc: that is where the municipalities of a few dozen inhabitants live.
A municipality of 40 inhabitants must still provide a registry office, a budget, road maintenance. That is why many micro-municipalities operate in association with their neighbours, and the debate on mergers periodically returns. So far, however, identity has almost always beaten rationalisation: none of Italy's ten smallest municipalities has chosen to merge.
Population density, municipality by municipality
Inhabitants per square kilometre in every Italian municipality, 2025. Source: ISTAT.
What Keeps a Municipality of 32 Inhabitants Alive
Why does Morterone still exist? The data suggests three answers. First: administrative autonomy brings resources, from small-municipality funds to direct management of the territory. Second: local tourism has rediscovered many of these villages, from Bergolo, the stone village of the Langhe with 52 inhabitants, to Moncenisio on the French border. Third: remote work has made it possible, for a small minority, to choose the mountains without giving up an urban income.
None of these forces has reversed the trend: the population of the micro-municipalities keeps falling and the average age keeps rising. But the speed of the decline has slowed in several cases, and some villages even record positive migration balances. You can explore the full demographic profile of each of these municipalities on DatiItalia: age pyramid, historical series since 1951 and projections to 2050.
Methodological note: ISTAT resident population as of 1 January 2025; the counts of municipalities below each threshold are computed on the same official rankings.