In Italy, millions of unoccupied homes represent a significant, underutilized real estate asset. Understanding how to leverage this socially and economically first requires understanding the social and economic makeup of these areas. Data clearly shows that this isn't merely a problem of a dysfunctional real estate market; behind these vacant properties lies a silent transformation in the structure of Italian families.

How many empty houses, and where: a geographical reading

A municipality with many empty houses tells a story. First, it indicates that its population has declined and that there isn't a thriving economy because family sizes have decreased.

To understand how to re-evaluate the housing stock as a resource, it's not enough to know the absolute number of unoccupied dwellings. This number naturally increases with the size of the municipality, where the building stock is larger by definition. What's needed is an indicator that measures proportion, not quantity – specifically, the rate of unoccupied dwellings relative to the total number of houses in the municipality.

And this figure – which shows a huge variation, from 2.7% to 95.1% – reveals an Italy much more diverse than one might imagine.

Mountains and Villages: Where Homes Are Emptiest

The distribution across the territory is highly heterogeneous and cannot be attributed solely to administrative divisions: even neighboring municipalities show widely varying figures, indicating that the phenomenon depends on local conditions.

Despite this fragmentation, a clear geographical pattern emerges: many mountainous and inland areas, along the Alpine arc and the Apennine ridge, exhibit high rates of vacant homes, consistent with depopulation trends and a weakening resident base. Bardonecchia, in the province of Turin, and Rocca di Mezzo, in the Abruzzo Apennines, help illustrate this complex situation: in both cases, over 84% of the housing stock is unoccupied, while single-person households exceed half of all households, and the average family size remains below two members. In Rocca di Mezzo, specifically, single-person households account for over 62% of the total.

This pattern isn't unique: high figures are also found in some coastal and tourist areas, where second homes and seasonal use can be significant factors. The map, therefore, indicates where the phenomenon is most intense; however, to interpret it, a demographic key is needed, linked to the composition of households.

Where People Live Alone: Empty Homes and an Aging Population

From a geographical analysis, we move to a demographic one. The following graph shows what happens in Italian municipalities as the proportion of single-person households varies: municipalities are ordered from the lowest to the highest proportion and divided into groups of equal size. The result is clear: as the proportion of people living alone increases, the percentage of unoccupied dwellings also rises steadily – from 19.7% in municipalities with fewer single-person households to 68.9% in those with more. Following the same trend, the average age of the population increases: it goes from 44 to about 52 years. In short, in areas where more people live alone, the unused housing stock is higher, and the population is older.

Properties remain, families change  

This data point is more demographic than housing-related. The housing stock is inflexible downwards: properties, by their very nature, tend to outlast family cycles and the people who own or inhabit them. In municipalities where the number of young people is decreasing and large families are becoming fewer, some homes may remain unused even if the housing stock physically remains. The high presence of single-person households should not, therefore, be interpreted as a direct cause of the phenomenon, but rather as a sign of a broader demographic shift: smaller households, an older population, and fewer stable residents. The relationship is descriptive, not causal: the rate of unoccupied homes is influenced by a set of interrelated factors – aging, depopulation, the prevalence of second homes, tourism vocation, local economic conditions, accessibility, historical characteristics of the stock – which this analysis does not separate. Family structure and the average age of the population are associated with the phenomenon; a cause-and-effect relationship cannot be inferred.
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A matter of social structure, not bricks and mortar

The two data representations capture complementary aspects: the map localizes the intensity of the phenomenon, while the graph isolates a recurring demographic dimension. Unoccupied homes indirectly reflect the transformation of family units, the aging of the population, and the weakening of the resident base in a significant portion of Italian municipalities. Treating them as a simple housing problem, to be solved with renovations and new housing, means ignoring the question that truly matters: for whom, and for what lifestyle, are these interventions being made.