In the first six months of 2025, the growth rate of the money that foreigners living in Italy transferred to their countries of origin was 6.4%. Assuming that the trend remained constant in the second half of the year as well, the amount of remittances to foreign countries in the year that is drawing to a close may have been close to 9 billion euros. The estimate is obtained by processing the statistics published quarterly by the Bank of Italy since 2005: in 20 years the amount of income that foreigners have transferred abroad has risen from the initial 3.9 billion euro to almost 8.3 in 2024; an increase of more than double at current values and just over 40% net of inflation (at constant prices).
The weight of remittances
The total amount of resources sent by foreign workers to families and relatives back home does not reach 0.38% of the Italian GDP in 2024. A small share, if compared to the weight offoreign labour on national wealth (8.8 per cent).
The incidence of remittances on GDP rises to half a percentage point, also taking into account flows that do not pass through banks, the Post Office and other channels required to record financial transfers with foreign countries. Monetary authorities estimate that in order to also take into account the various forms of cash transfers, the official figures should be increased by 30% (opportunities and means to send home cash are all the greater the closer the destination country is and the higher the number and territorial concentration of its citizens in Italy).
Over the same period of time considered (2005-2024), the number of foreigners registered at the civil registry office in Italy increased from 2.27 to 5.25 million (+131%), with a much stronger growth trend than that of transfers. As a result, the average amount transferred went from EUR 1,719 to EUR 1,577 (-8% at current values). The reason that may have affected the trend in the average value of remittances could be sought, among other causes, in the increase in family reunifications: these may have contributed to an increase in incomes consumed in Italy, reducing economic support to relatives back home.
The territorial distribution
The Bank of Italy censuses some 230 countries to which the remittances sent from 107 Italian provinces flow. The statistics highlight a polarisation of geographical distribution, both by destination and origin. Substantial flows of savings to a small number of countries are contrasted by unimportant trickles, in every respect, to the remaining majority of different destinations. The 5.5 billion euro that were transferred in 2024 to Bangladesh, Pakistan, Morocco, the Philippines, Georgia, India, Romania, Peru, Sri Lanka, and Senegal (the top ten ordering countries in terms of decreasing amounts received) make up about two-thirds of the total remittances; with the addition of the countries occupying the next ten positions in the ranking, 85% of the total values transferred are exceeded. In particular, remittances sent to Bangladesh by Bangladeshis resident in Italy make up the largest portion (1.4 billion euros), equal to 0.34% of the country’s GDP. For the other states listed, remittances also constitute a valuable currency and a non-negligible economic support. At the opposite pole there is a long tail of 100 countries, each of which received less than 500,000 euro in total from Italy in 2024. Even the geography of the areas from which remittances depart is not uniform. However, the polarisation is less pronounced when compared to that of the destinations. Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin, Florence, Brescia, Bologna, Genoa, Venice and Verona are, in this order, theten provinces that contribute the most to the formation of remittances, with 3.9 billion euros or 47% of the total. In 2024, 1.1 billion euro were sent from the metropolitan city of Rome; from Milan 900 million.