Demographics
| Historical population | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1861 | 484,026 | — |
| 1871 | 489,008 | +1.0% |
| 1881 | 535,206 | +9.4% |
| 1901 | 621,213 | +16.1% |
| 1911 | 751,290 | +20.9% |
| 1921 | 859,629 | +14.4% |
| 1931 | 831,781 | −3.2% |
| 1936 | 865,913 | +4.1% |
| 1951 | 1,010,550 | +16.7% |
| 1961 | 1,182,815 | +17.0% |
| 1971 | 1,226,594 | +3.7% |
| 1981 | 1,212,387 | −1.2% |
| 1991 | 1,067,365 | −12.0% |
| 2001 | 1,004,500 | −5.9% |
| 2011 | 957,811 | −4.6% |
| Source: ISTAT 2001 | ||
As of 2012, the population of the comune di Napoli totals around 960,000. Naples' wider metropolitan area, sometimes known as Greater Naples, has a population of approximately 4.4 million. The demographic profile for the Neapolitan province in general is relatively young: 19% are under the age of 14, while 13% are over 65, compared to the national average of 14% and 19%, respectively. Naples has a higher percentage of females (52.4%) than males (47.6%). Naples currently has a higher birth rate than other parts of Italy, with 10.46 births per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to the Italian average of 9.45 births.
The city's population rose from 621,000 in 1901 to 1,226,000 in 1971, before declining as city-dwellers moved to the suburbs. According to different sources, Naples' metropolitan area is either the second-most-populated metropolitan area in Italy after Milan (with 4,434,136 inhabitants according to Svimez Data) or the third (with 3.1 million inhabitants according to the OECD). In addition, Naples is Italy's most densely populated major city, with over 8,000 people per square kilometre.
Unlike many northern Italian cities, there are relatively few foreign immigrants in Naples; 98.5% of the city's inhabitants are Italian nationals. In 2006, there were a total of 19,188 foreigners in the city of Naples; the majority of these are Eastern European, hailing mostly from the Ukraine, Poland and the Balkans. There are few non-Europeans, although there are small Sri Lankan and East Asian immigrant communities. Statistics show that the vast majority of immigrants in Naples are female; this is because male immigrants in Italy tend to head north.
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