Cost of living in Italy: what official figures say

"Is Italy cheap?" has no single answer, because Italy is two or three countries in a trench coat. A flat in central Milan and a stone house in a Calabrian village live in different economies. The most honest way to approach the cost of living in Italy is to start from official statistics and then adjust for your own habits.

What does the average Italian household spend?

ISTAT, the national statistics institute, publishes a yearly survey of household consumption. For 2025, the average household spent €2,782 a month, up slightly from €2,755 in 2024. The median, the figure in the middle of the distribution, was €2,338. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels weigh 36.0% of the total; food and non-alcoholic drinks 19.8%.

Handle those numbers with care. They are household averages for the whole country, including families with several children and people who own their home outright. They tell you where Italy's money goes, not what a single expat renting in a city will pay.

Is the cost of living in Italy lower in the South?

Yes, and the gap is big. ISTAT's 2025 figures per month for the average household:

At regional level, Trentino-Alto Adige is the most expensive at €3,444, and Puglia the least, at €1,975, followed by Calabria at €2,042. In the South and Islands, food takes a bigger share of the budget (25.4% in the South, 24.1% in the Islands, against 17.7% in the North-West), which is another way of saying that other costs, rent first, are lower.

Do not infer that every southern address is cheap for a foreigner: spending figures are averages, local wages and services differ, and a popular seaside resort is not a typical village. But if your income comes from abroad, the official numbers suggest the South is where it stretches furthest. We look at where to settle in best places to live in Italy.

A budget is only useful if it matches your situation: where you live, how many people, whether you work in Italy or abroad, which tax regime applies to you. If you want to test a realistic monthly number for your own case, ask Moovy, Hello Expat's AI assistant: it can lay out the fixed costs and the taxes that apply to you, and point you to the official source for each.

How do you find real rents and property prices?

Averages hide the one cost that matters most. For rents and sales, the Agenzia delle Entrate publishes the OMI quotations (Osservatorio del Mercato Immobiliare), with minimum and maximum values per zone, municipality and type of property, for both sale and rent. The latest release covers the first half of 2026. You can search by municipality and zone online or in the OMI Mobile app. The agency itself says these figures are rough guides and cannot replace an appraisal of a specific home, but for comparing neighbourhoods they are the best neutral tool.

For the legal side of a rental, including deposit and registration costs, see renting in Italy.

Which fixed costs do expats forget?

• Registration tax on a lease: 2% of the annual rent in 2026, minimum €67 the first year, split between landlord and tenant by law, unless the landlord chooses the flat-rate cedolare secca.
• TARI: the municipal waste tax. The commune sets the tariff each year, partly by surface and number of occupants.
• Health cover: free for employees and for pensioners with an S1. If you are in neither group, voluntary enrolment in the national health service has a minimum of €2,000 a year, according to local health authorities. See healthcare in Italy.
• Car: the yearly bollo (regional car tax), compulsory third-party insurance (RC auto) and a technical inspection four years after first registration, then every two years. If you bring a foreign car, Italian registration has costs of its own, so check them with the Motorizzazione civile before you move.
• Foreign accounts and property: a tax resident pays IVAFE on foreign accounts (€34.20 per current account if the average balance exceeds €5,000) and IVIE on foreign real estate (1.06%, with exceptions). The Agenzia delle Entrate explains both on its IVAFE and IVIE pages.

Does income tax change the cost of living in Italy?

Greatly. Italian income tax (IRPEF) in 2026 is 23% up to €28,000, 33% between €28,000 and €50,000 and 43% above, plus regional and municipal surcharges. For some newcomers there are special regimes. A worker who meets the conditions of the impatriati regime is taxed on only half of their Italian employment income, and a pensioner in a small southern town may pay a flat 7% on foreign income; the conditions are on the Agenzia delle Entrate's pages for each regime. The same salary can be two different budgets depending on the regime.

How do you work out your own cost of living in Italy?

Start with the fixed bills: rent or mortgage, TARI, utilities, health cover, car if you need one. Add food, using the ISTAT shares as a sanity check (roughly a fifth of household spending nationally). Then test the result against the OMI range of the neighbourhood you prefer, and against your net income after Italian tax. If the numbers only work in the cheapest region, believe them.

Treat any single "average cost" claim, including an article like this one, as a starting point and nothing more. The official data above is the part you can rely on.

What do health, school and transport cost?

Several large items are cheaper than newcomers fear, because the state carries them. Public school is free; state school taxes arrive only in the last two years of upper secondary school, at €15.13 a year for attendance, with exemptions based on family income (see schools in Italy). Care with an enrolled family doctor is free, apart from regional co-payments on some services. The canteen, nursery and school bus are priced by the Comune, often on your ISEE, so the same school meal costs different amounts in two neighbouring towns.

Transport is the opposite: it depends on your region, your city and, above all, on whether you need a car. In a big city you may do without one. In a hill town you may need one even to buy bread, and then the yearly bollo, the insurance and the inspection are part of your base budget; the paperwork for your licence is in driving licence in Italy.

How does the cost of living in Italy differ by profile?

Averages hide profiles. The ISTAT figure covers all households, so apply it with your own circumstances in mind.

• A retiree on a foreign pension. Your biggest lever is the tax regime. If you settle in an eligible southern town, the 7% option can change the arithmetic more than any grocery list. Check the conditions with the Agenzia delle Entrate before choosing a town.
• A remote worker with a foreign employer. Italian tax applies once you pass 183 days, and your employer's payroll may not withhold it. Budget for tax and contributions you pay yourself.
• A skilled employee with an Italian contract. Check with the Agenzia delle Entrate whether you qualify for the impatriati regime, which reduces the taxable base of your Italian pay.
• A family with children. School is cheap but not free of extras, and housing near good schools carries a premium in big cities.

When are the big tax bills due?

Property owners pay IMU on a home that is not their main residence on 16 June and 16 December (or the whole amount in June). Income tax settles in the summer and autumn after the year ends, with instalments in between. Because the first Italian tax year mixes two systems, keep a reserve: a tax bill that lands in June for the previous year's income is a surprise for many newcomers, not a cost to resent.

Whichever profile you recognise, the best starting point is a short list of fixed costs, a realistic rent from the OMI data and an honest tax estimate. Add a margin for the unknown: living expenses in Italy in your first year include one-off costs that no average captures.