Italy ranks low on InterNations' overall expat satisfaction survey, and the reason is almost always the same one. Here's what the data says people genuinely love, and the real friction behind the low score.
Italy is an unusual case in expat satisfaction data: it consistently ranks in the lower half of InterNations' Expat Insider survey overall — 24th in the 2026 edition — while scoring well, sometimes very well, on the specific things that make people fall in love with the country in the first place. The gap between those two facts tells you almost everything useful about moving there.
What people actually say they love
Across expat accounts and surveys, the qualitative pull is remarkably consistent: food and wine treated as a daily ritual rather than an occasion, art, architecture and history woven into ordinary city life, and a culture that visibly prioritises family, friends and shared meals over work and schedules. Italy also scores well specifically on leisure, culture and nightlife in InterNations' category breakdowns — this isn't vague travel-brochure language, it shows up as a real strength in the data even in years when Italy's overall ranking is weak.
Healthcare that outperforms its reputation
Italy's public healthcare system (SSN) is regularly cited by relocation guides and expat accounts as a genuine strength — broadly accessible, good outcomes by international comparison — which matters more than people expect once the initial excitement of the move wears off and ordinary life, including getting sick, starts.
Regional variety most countries can't offer
Few countries let you choose between an Alpine lifestyle, a Mediterranean coastline, a major art city and a quiet rural hill town without crossing a border — Italy's regional range (from Trentino-Alto Adige to Sicily) means the "why I moved here" answer varies enormously by region, which is itself part of the appeal: there's a genuinely different Italy for different priorities.
What drags the overall score down
The consistent, repeated complaint across expat surveys — not just InterNations, but relocation forums and guides generally — is bureaucracy: slow administrative processes, friction opening bank accounts, and paperwork that takes noticeably longer than in Northern Europe. Previous Expat Insider editions specifically named low salaries, job insecurity, bureaucracy, limited digital-service connectivity and political instability as the drags on Italy's overall ranking, even in years when the same respondents rated leisure and culture highly. In other words: people who move to Italy for the right reasons tend to love it; the administrative side of actually getting settled is the real, well-documented cost of that decision.
FAQ
If Italy ranks low overall, should I still consider moving there? The low overall ranking is driven almost entirely by administrative and economic factors (bureaucracy, job market, salaries) — if you're not relying on the Italian job market and can get professional help with the paperwork, the lifestyle factors that drive people to love Italy are real and well-documented separately. Is Italian healthcare actually good? Yes — it's consistently rated as a genuine strength in expat comparisons, not just a selling point. How long does Italian bureaucracy actually take? Significantly longer than Northern European norms is the consistent theme across sources — budget extra time and, ideally, local professional help for anything administrative. Does the regional variety actually matter day to day? Yes — the practical experience of living in, say, Puglia versus Lake Como versus Milan is different enough that "moving to Italy" undersells how much the specific region shapes the experience.
How we help
We handle the bureaucratic side — registration, permits, paperwork — that surveys consistently flag as Italy's real weak point, so the parts people actually move to Italy for are the parts you experience day to day. Informational only — survey data reflects aggregate patterns, not a guarantee of any individual's experience.