Romanians in Italy (Romanian: românii din Italia; Italian: romeni in Italia or rumeni in Italia) became a significant population after 1999, due to a large wave of emigration known in Romania as Fenomenul migrației către UE (the phenomenon of migration toward the European Union). A large part of Romanian emigrants went to Spain or Italy, whose national languages are Romance languages like Romanian. They were followed by another wave beginning in 2002, when Romanian citizens obtained the right to move to any Schengen Zone country without a visa. In 2007 Romania joined the European Union, further increasing the economic and political ties between the countries.
As of 2022[update], there were 1,072,001 Romanian citizens living in Italy, the largest Romanian immigrant population in any country as well as the largest immigrant group within Italy.[1]
Between 2008 and 2020, 98,499 Romanians acquired Italian citizenship.[4]
Rome and Turin are by far the cities hosting the largest communities of Romanians in Italy; in 2016, there were over 90,000 Romanians in Rome, and over 50,000 Romanians in Turin.[2] The next city with a significant population of Romanians is Milan, with over 14,000 Romanians.[2]
About 60% of Romanians in Italy come from the Romanian region of Western Moldavia.[6]
In the years 2011 and 2012 the ISTAT made a survey regarding the religious affiliation among the immigrants in Italy, the religion of the Romanian people in Italy were as follows:[23]
In 2023, the vicepresident of the local council of Prato, the Romanian-born Claudiu Stănășel, announced that he started the proceedings for the Romanians to be recognized as an official national minority of Italy.[24][25]
Notable people
This list includes people of Romanian origin born in Italy or people born in Romania but mainly active in Italy.
