There are 4,2 million foreign residents in Italy

There are 4,235,059 foreign residents in Italy, representing 7% of the national population, a report by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) has revealed.

Last year, the number of foreign residents increased by 343,764 (8,8%), slightly lower than the previous two years (494,000 in 2007 and 459,000 in 2008).

Minor foreign children in Italy are 932,675, representing 22,0% of the total population of foreign residents in the country. Of these, 573,000 were born in Italy while the rest came to join their family members here.

Almost three million of the foreign residents in the country are from Eastern European countries, mainly new EU Member States.

According to the figures from Istat, more than 60% of foreign residents live in northern part of Italy, 25,3% in the central part of the country and the remaining 13,1% in the southern part.