Day-time population for study and work - Year 2020

The 2020 Istat update comprises data pertaining to that part of the population which settles in a specific territory for study and work-related reasons at a municipality level.

Studies on these settlements of the population as well as the dynamics involved in urbanization reveal that the residents and non-residents may coexist in the same area, sharing the same spaces whilst maintaining their own habits. These individuals are non-resident but visit periodically, with different motivations (study, work, tourism, travel, free time, etc.) at different time intervals (daily, weekly, monthly, occasional) and for different lengths of stay.

The day-time population in a specific area is therefore composed of subpopulations of residents, workers, students and other “city users”. This population differs from the residents on the basis of the attractiveness or the repulsiveness of the area in question: people moving towards cities where services, shops and industries change the place of origin as well as destination causing competition between residents and non-residents in exploiting of such resources.

 As of 2020, the Basic Register of Individuals, Households and Cohabitations (RBI in Italian) was considered, and not only the Municipal Registry Lists (LAC in Italian) in order to fetch residents on the national territory. However, the counting of the resident population is carried out by integrating data from the LAC with the demographic dynamics (births, deaths, exchanges of residence between municipalities as well as transfers of residence abroad) and over/under-coverage error estimates. In the Integrated System of Registries context (SIR in Italian), the aforementioned integration improves the efficiency of the data production process as well as the quality of the estimates.

The evaluation of day-time and night-time population is a well-known challenging problem to solve in the literature of demography. Cities which are attractive due to study and work related reasons are subject to a greater influx of the aforementioned day-time population resulting in a consequent increased exploitation of resources.

Answers to questions such as what the total number of people involved is, where their origins are and what their specific characteristics are would be useful for the sizing of services and housing needs (both central and in the outskirts) as well as for planning strategies of prevention and action pertaining to natural disasters.

In this study/update a procedure was proposed in order to link each individual to their municipality of origin and destination. Sources available up to date have led to the quantification of the day-time population. This population, which gravitates within a given territory, includes residents, workers and students and excludes tourists, business travelers, individuals travelling for health-related reasons, religion and other reasons.

The aforementioned population estimates are reported in the attached statistical annex. A set of tables regarding this aggregate describes the related flows and distribution across the territory. This annex also contains a set of calculations for territorial domains such as Large Municipalities, Metropolitan Cities, Main Urban Areas, Functional Urban Areas, University Cities and Regions.