Demographics
| Historical population | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1861 | 829,000 | — |
| 1871 | 884,000 | +6.6% |
| 1881 | 936,000 | +5.9% |
| 1901 | 1,086,000 | +16.0% |
| 1911 | 1,207,000 | +11.1% |
| 1921 | 1,338,000 | +10.9% |
| 1931 | 1,423,000 | +6.4% |
| 1936 | 1,467,000 | +3.1% |
| 1951 | 1,567,000 | +6.8% |
| 1961 | 1,735,000 | +10.7% |
| 1971 | 1,854,000 | +6.9% |
| 1981 | 1,808,000 | −2.5% |
| 1991 | 1,676,000 | −7.3% |
| 2001 | 1,572,000 | −6.2% |
| 2011 | 1,617,000 | +2.9% |
| Source: ISTAT 2001 | ||
Population density of Liguria is much higher than the national average (300 inhabitants per km2, or 770 per sq mi), being inferior only to Campania's, Lombardy's and Latium's. In the province of Genoa, it reaches almost 500 inhabitants per km2, whereas in the provinces of Imperia and Savona it is less than 200 inhabitants per km2. The Spanish traveller Pedro Tafur, noting it from sea in 1436, remarked "To one who does not know it, the whole coast from Savona to Genoa looks like one continuous city, so well inhabited is it, and so thickly studded with houses," and today over 80% of the regional population still lives permanently near to the coast, where all the four major cities above 50,000 are located: Genoa (pop. 610,000), La Spezia (pop. 95,000), Savona (pop. 62,000) and Sanremo (pop. 56,000).
The population of Liguria has been declining from 1971 to 2001, most markedly in the cities of Genoa, Savona and La Spezia. The age pyramid now looks more like a 'mushroom' resting on a fragile base. The negative trend has been partially interrupted only in the last decade when, after a successful economic recovery, the region has attracted consistent fluxes of immigrants. As of 2008, the Italian national institute of statistics, ISTAT, estimated that 90,881 foreign-born immigrants live in Liguria, equal to 5.8% of the total regional population.
Read more about this topic: Liguria