Bolzano is the Italian province
that offers the best quality of life to its residents and Reggio
Calabria the province where people live worst, according to the
26th edition of Il Sole 24 Ore's life-quality index published
Monday.
The autonomous province in the northern South Tyrol region
came top for the fifth time in 26 years.
It was followed by Milan in second place and Trento - the
other autonomous province making up South Tyrol - in third.
Rome dropped four places from last year to 16th in the
annual the ranking by the financial daily.
The index takes account of 36 indicators reflecting public
services, health and the environment, demographics, free time,
law and order, standard of living and business and employment to
measure a province's quality of life.
This year 110 provinces including Barletta, Andria, Trani
(BAT), Fermo and Monza Brianza were considered.
The lower part of the ranking was occupied largely by
provinces in the south, with Calabria's Vibo Valentia in
second-to-last place and Messina in Sicily at 104th.
The success of Bolzano rested on a number of factors
including a 71% employment rate (compared to the average of 56%)
and the percentage of bad loans to total loans of just 5.7%
(less than a third of the average value).
Population indicators including the old age index and life
expectancy and free time indicators including attendance at live
shows, sport and spending by foreign tourists also gave good
results.
At the opposite extreme, Reggio Calabria performed worst as
regards standard of living, business and employment and public
services, health and the environment, with 36% of jobs deemed at
risk, average family wealth of 193,000 euros compared to the
national average of 345,000 euros, an exports-to-GDP ratio of
less than 2%, kindergarten places for less than 2% of the user
basin and a poor vote from environmental watchdog Legambiente.
The Sole 24 Ore study also provided separate rankings for
each of the macro areas taken into account.
Milan came top for standard of living, Prato in Tuscany for
business and employment, Monza and Brianza in Lombardy for
public services, health and the environment, Olbia Tempio in
Sardinia for demographics, Nuoro also in Sardinia for law and
order and Rimini in Marche for free time.
Milan rose from eighth place in 2014 to second place this
year thanks to wealth indicators (pensions, GDP), public
services and leisure opportunities.
However, like all provinces hosting major cities or
attracting large numbers of tourists, it fared worse on
security.
With the exception of Olbia-Tempio, all the provinces in
the top 10 were in the centre or north, especially Lombardy and
Tuscany.
Florence rose from 16th place in 2014 to fourth place
this year, while Siena was stable at ninth place.
The full results of the survey are available at
www.ilsole24ore.com/qvita2015.
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