Demographics
| Historical population | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1871 | 2,196,000 | — |
| 1881 | 2,346,000 | +6.8% |
| 1901 | 2,580,000 | +10.0% |
| 1911 | 3,009,000 | +16.6% |
| 1921 | 3,319,000 | +10.3% |
| 1931 | 3,487,000 | +5.1% |
| 1936 | 3,566,000 | +2.3% |
| 1951 | 3,918,000 | +9.9% |
| 1961 | 3,847,000 | −1.8% |
| 1971 | 4,123,000 | +7.2% |
| 1981 | 4,345,000 | +5.4% |
| 1991 | 4,381,000 | +0.8% |
| 2001 | 4,528,000 | +3.4% |
| 2010 (Est.) | 4,936,000 | +9.0% |
| Source: ISTAT 2001 | ||
The region has about 4.8 million inhabitants, ranking Veneto as the fifth most populated region in Italy. Veneto has one of the highest population densities amongst the Italian regions (265 inhabitants per km2 in 2008). This is particularly true in the provinces of Padua, Venice and Treviso, where the inhabitants per km2 are above 300. Belluno is the least densely populated province, with 57 inhabitants per km2.
Like the other regions of Northern Italy and Central Italy, though with a certain time lag, Veneto has been experiencing a phase of very slow population growth caused by the dramatic fall in fertility. The overall population has so far been increasing - though only slightly - due to the net immigration started at the end of the 1960s, after more than 20 years of massive exodus from the poorer areas of the region.
Nearly 3 million Venetians were forced to leave their country between 1861 and 1961 to escape poverty. Many emigrated to Latin America, especially Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. After World War II they moved to other European countries. As of 2008, there were 260,849 Venetian citizens living outside of Italy (5.4% of the region's population), the largest number was found in Brazil, with 57,052 Venetians, followed by Switzerland with 38,320 and Argentina with 31,823. There are several million people of Venetian descent around the world, particularly in Brazil, in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná and Espirito Santo. Local names in Southern Brazil such as Nova Schio, Nova Bassano, Nova Bréscia, Nova Treviso, Nova Veneza, Nova Pádua and Monteberico indicate the Venetian origin of their inhabitants. In recent years people of Venetian descent from Brazil and Argentina have been migrating to Italy.
Due to the impressive economic growth of the last two decades, Veneto has turned into a land of immigration and has been attracting more and more immigrants since the 1990s. In 2008 the Italian national institute of statistics ISTAT estimated that 403,985 foreign-born immigrants live in Veneto, equal to 8.3% of the total regional population.
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