As of September 2024, there are approximately 37.2 million Italians in possession of a telephone SIM card, which roughly corresponds to the population aged 12 years or older, who moved every day. Each traveller makes an average of 2.54 trips per day, totalling over 94 million trips per day, corresponding to over 2.3 billion trips*km.
Focusing the analysis on a regional level, a significant heterogeneity is found. At September 2024, the percentage of mobile population varies from the highs above 80% found in Abruzzo, Marche and Umbria, to values close to 70% in Liguria, Apulia, Sicily and Sardinia. In terms of distance travelled, users living in Basilicata, Umbria, Molise and the central Italian regions bordering the Adriatic (with the exception of Abruzzo) are characterised by a higher number of kilometres travelled per capita per day. Italian mobility also varies according to the days of the week. On Saturdays and Sundays, the number of trips decreased by 3.3% compared to the same value on other days, but the distance travelled increased.
These and other data were published in the report 'Observatory on trends in passenger and freight mobility (3rd quarter 2024)' drafted by the Struttura Tecnica di Missione (STM) of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. In particular, the Section ‘Mobility in Figures’ shows the analysis of telephone Big Data on a monthly basis, carried out by the FS Research Centre, part of the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group, with the SIMS (Strategic Information Management System).
Purpose of this report is to monitor the evolution of passenger and freight traffic in Italy, anticipate the needs of the transport and logistics sector, better plan investments in infrastructure and transport, and disseminate data and statistics to the scientific community.