From Prato to Lodi: the top 10 foreign players in the league. Italian players on the decline everywhere

The first province in the south is Ragusa, which, however, ranks only 41st, with a proportion of 14.2 per cent. The gap between the Centre-North and the South becomes even more apparent when we look at how many provinces have more than 10 per cent of foreign students out of the total enrolment: in the Centre-North, 60 out of 66 do, whilst in the South, just 3 out of 38 do. These are Ragusa, L’Aquila and Teramo.

It is precisely in the southern provinces, however, that the sharpest percentage increase in the number of foreign pupils has been recorded over the last five years, particularly in Campania: between the 2019/20 and 2024/25 academic years, Salerno and Avellino saw increases of 40 per cent and 38 per cent respectively; Naples (+27 per cent) and Caserta (+25 per cent) have also seen strong growth.

The number of foreign pupils in classrooms, however, is rising across almost the whole of the country. The only exceptions are the provinces of Campobasso (-11 per cent), Perugia (-3 per cent), Pesaro and Urbino (-3 per cent), Arezzo (-2 per cent) and Vicenza (-1 per cent).

If we exclude Prato (+0.16 per cent), where the trend is more stable, there have been increases exceeding the national average of 10 per cent in all provinces where the proportion of foreign pupils in classes already exceeds the 20 per cent average (and where, therefore, breaches of the new 30 per cent cap are likely to be concentrated): in addition to the border areas of Imperia (+35%) and Gorizia (+36%), for example, in the province of Pavia, foreign pupils account for around 21 per cent of the total and have increased by 24 per cent over five years.

There are, however, no exceptions to the decline in the number of Italian pupils, which affects every province in the country. The region hardest hit is Sardinia, with Nuoro losing 14 per cent of its Italian pupils, South Sardinia 13 per cent and Oristano 12 per cent. Declines of more than 10 per cent have also been recorded in the provinces of Basilicata and in four of the six provinces of Apulia. In the north, the regions facing the greatest difficulties are Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, where more than half the territory has lost one in ten Italian pupils over the past five years.

Looking at the data broken down by level of education, the highest proportion of foreign pupils is found in primary schools (14.3 per cent), followed by lower secondary schools (12.9 per cent). The proportion is slightly lower in nursery schools (12.6 per cent), whilst it falls to 8.7 per cent in secondary schools.

Prato and Piacenza have the highest rates across all levels of education, with peaks of 36.1 per cent in lower secondary schools in Prato and 32.2 per cent in primary schools in Piacenza. At the other end of the scale is Oristano, with just 1.55 per cent in upper secondary schools and 1.8 per cent in primary schools. Figures of around 2 per cent are also recorded in nursery schools in Barletta-Andria-Trani and in lower secondary schools in Nuoro.

This disparity highlights just how different the needs of local communities are. And the lower proportion of foreign pupils in the South does not necessarily translate into a more favourable environment for classroom learning in these areas. In fact, citizenship is just one of the factors that can contribute to educational disadvantage: difficult economic, social and family circumstances remain the factors that most influence, for example, the results of the Invalsi tests (see the article on the right), particularly in the South.