On 31 December 2008 there were 3,891,295 foreign residents in Italy against a total population of 60 million according to the national statistics institute ISTAT. This represents a rise of 13.4 per cent over the previous year. However the Catholic relief agency Caritas puts the actual number at over 4.3 million including those foreigners who are in Italy legally but are not yet registered at the local registry office. The figures are contained in the 2009 immigration statistics report published annually by Caritas/Migrantes.

Foreign residents made up 7.2 per cent of Italy