Italy's Highest Crime Rates Are Not Where You Think

Lower crime rate than Florence: 14 places in Italy's South ranked by reported crime per resident, from Naples, 12th of 106, to Oristano, 106th.
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The figures come from Il Sole 24 Ore's 2026 crime index (Interior Ministry data): crimes reported to the police per resident in 2025, for all 106 provinces, Sicily and Sardinia included; famous towns share their province's figure: the Amalfi Coast (Salerno), Tropea (Vibo Valentia), Alghero (Sassari), Ostuni (Brindisi), Taormina (Messina) and Maratea (Potenza). For each place: its rank, one everyday detail, its practical downside and who it suits on this measure. Crimes that never reach the police are missing (about 3 in 10 pickpocketings go unreported), and the ratios to Italy's level (all of Italy's reported crimes divided by its residents) are our own calculations.

Chapters:
00:00 Most crime: Milan; Naples 12th of 106
00:47 Naples: 12th of 106
02:14 Siracusa: 27th, the most in Sicily
03:28 Palermo: 33rd, down 9% in a year
04:42 Bari: 49th, Saint Nicholas's city
05:39 Amalfi Coast (Salerno): 56th
06:31 Tropea (Vibo Valentia): 61st
07:29 Alghero (Sassari): 72nd
08:23 Ostuni (Brindisi): 75th, the white city
09:22 Matera: 81st, the town of caves
10:18 Lecce: 86th, a Roman arena downtown
11:09 Taormina (Messina): 92nd
12:04 Agrigento: 101st, Valley of the Temples
13:08 Maratea (Potenza): 105th
14:09 Oristano: 106th, the lowest in Italy

Crime ranking 2025: Il Sole 24 Ore (Lab24), processing of Ministry of the Interior data; our changes: ratios to Italy's level. Crime, water and municipality statistics: ISTAT, licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/); our changes: ranks, ratios and counts.
Quotes: Rick Steves Travel Forum https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/is-palermo-safe · https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/naples-crime
Photos (cropped and color-graded), via Wikimedia Commons:
CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0):
• "Sicily in 2025 05" by Continentaleurope, https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=176997574
• "No Mafia Memorial Palermo" by Derbrauni, https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=130025443
• "Torre di San Cristoforo o di Mariano II - Oristano, Italia - 15 Agosto 2020" by Giorgio Galeotti, https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=119616646
CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0):
• "Palermo, Sicilia, Italia Ap 2024 - Narrow street" by Sharon Hahn Darlin, https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=147301859
• "Tempio della Concordia, Valle dei Templi, Agrigento, Sicilia, Italia 2024" by Sharon Hahn Darlin, https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=147344627
• "Agrigento - Italy (15023855376)" by Rodrigo Silva, https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=74057272
CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0):
• "Lungomare verso sud - Tropea - panoramio" by ANTONIO DAZZETTI, https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=41881283
• "Cipolla rossa di Tropea - panoramio" by kajikawa, https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=53022595
• "Tropea - La Cattedrale - panoramio" by ANTONIO DAZZETTI, https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=41881185
• "Tropea (I) (tone-mapping)" by Guido Radig, https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=27399334
• "Sassari, palazzo della provincia e piazza italia" by Sailko, https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=35962859
• "Oristano, piazza eleonora 01" by Sailko, https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=96539325
CC0 / public domain (no credit required): "Fountain of Diana, Siracusa" by Julian Lupyan; "Ortea Palace Hotel (Palazzo delle Poste)" by Julian Lupyan; "Brand New Cadillac (Unsplash)" by Alessio Rinella mumbojumbo; "Lungomare (Bari) 01" by Bernard Gagnon; "Chiesa di Santa Maria dell' isola Tropea" by Andreas Lattmann; "Roman amphitheater (Lecce)" by Eganjm
Footage: Pixabay (Pixabay Content License), trimmed and color-graded; each clip's link is on the sources page.
Footage: Storyblocks (Storyblocks Individual License), trimmed and color-graded.
Music: original music made for this channel.
Sound effects made for this channel.
Maps: Made with Natural Earth.

Researched and produced in Europe by an independent publisher. General information from official sources, with the dates we checked them on our sources page. Not legal, tax, financial or medical advice, and no one here is a lawyer or tax adviser. Rules change, so check the linked official page before you act. Not affiliated with any government.