Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ;"Latium" (US) and from the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,709,444 inhabitants and a GDP of more than €212 billion per year, making it the country's second most populated region and second largest regional economy after Lombardy. The capital of Lazio is Rome, which is also the capital city of Italy.
Lazio was the home of the Etruscan civilization, then stood at the center of the Roman Republic, of the Roman Empire, of the Papal States, of the Kingdom of Italy and of the Italian Republic. Lazio boasts a rich cultural heritage. Great artists and historical figures lived and worked in Rome, particularly during the Italian Renaissance period.
In remote antiquity, Lazio (Latium) included only a limited part of the current region, between the lower course of the Tiber, the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Monti Sabini and the Pontine Marshes.
After the end of World War II in Europe and the fall of the Fascist regime Lazio and Italy saw rapid economic growth, especially in Rome. Today, Lazio is a large center of services and international trade, industry, public services, and tourism, supported by an extensive network of transport infrastructures thanks to its geographical position in the center of Italian Peninsula and the presence of Rome within it.
History
The Italian word Lazio descends from the Latin word Latium, the region of the Latins, Latini in the Latin language spoken by them and passed on to the Latin city-state of Ancient Rome. Although the demography of ancient Rome was multi-ethnic, including, for example, Etruscans, Sabines and other Italics besides the Latini, the latter were the dominant constituent. In Roman mythology, the tribe of the Latini took their name from King Latinus. Apart from the mythical derivation of Lazio given by the ancients as the place where Saturn, ruler of the golden age in Latium, hid (latuisset)Aeneid, VIII.323. from Jupiter there, a major modern etymology is that Lazio comes from the Latin word "latus", meaning "wide", expressing the idea of "flat land" meaning the Roman Campagna. Much of Lazio is in fact flat or rolling. The lands originally inhabited by the Latini were extended into the territories of the Samnites, the Marsi, the Hernici, the Aequi, the Aurunci and the Volsci, all surrounding Italic tribes. This larger territory was still called Latium, but it was divided into Latium adiectum or Latium Novum, the added lands or New Latium, and Latium Vetus, or Old Latium, the older, smaller region. The northern border of Lazio was the Tiber river, which divided it from Etruria.
The emperor Augustus officially united almost all of present-day Italy into a single geo-political entity, Italia, dividing it into eleven regions. The part of today's Lazio south of the Tiber river – together with the present region of Campania immediately to the southeast of Lazio and the seat of Neapolis – became Region I (Latium et Campania), while modern Upper Lazio became part of Regio VII – Etruria, and today's Province of Rieti joined Regio IV – Samnium.
After the Gothic conquest of Italy at the end of the fifth century, modern Lazio became part of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, but after the Gothic War between 535 and 554 and conquest by the Byzantine Empire, the region became the property of the Eastern Emperor as the Duchy of Rome. However, the long wars against the Longobards weakened the region. With the Donation of Sutri in 728, the Pope acquired the first territory in the region beyond the Duchy of Rome.
The strengthening of the religious and ecclesiastical aristocracy led to continuous power struggles between secular lords (Baroni) and the Pope until the middle of the 16th century. Innocent III tried to strengthen his own territorial power, wishing to assert his authority in the provincial administrations of Tuscia, Campagna and Marittima through the Church's representatives, in order to reduce the power of the Colonna family. Other popes tried to do the same. During the period when the papacy resided in Avignon, France (1309–1377), the feudal lords' power increased due to the absence of the Pope from Rome. Small communes, and Rome above all, opposed the lords' increasing power, and with Cola di Rienzo, they tried to present themselves as antagonists of the ecclesiastical power. However, between 1353 and 1367, the papacy regained control of Lazio and the rest of the Papal States. From the middle of the 16th century, the papacy politically unified Lazio with the Papal States, so that these territories became provincial administrations of St. Peter's estate; governors in Viterbo, in Marittima and Campagna, and in Frosinone administered them for the papacy.
Lazio was part of the short-lived Roman Republic, after which it became a puppet state of the First French Republic under the forces of Napoleon Bonaparte. Lazio was returned to the Papal States in October 1799. In 1809, it was annexed to the French Empire under the name of the Department of Tibre, but returned to the Pope's control in 1815.
On 20 September 1870 the capture of Rome, during the reign of Pope Pius IX, and France's defeat at Sedan, completed Italian unification, and Lazio was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy. In 1927, the territory of the province of Rieti, belonging to Umbria and Abruzzo, joined Lazio. Towns in Lazio were devastated by the 2016 Central Italy earthquake.Powerful Earthquakes in Italy.
Geography
Lazio comprises a land area of and it has borders with Tuscany, Umbria, and Marche to the north, Abruzzo and Molise to the east, Campania to the south, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. The region is mainly hilly (56%) and mountainous (26%), with some plains (20%) along the coast and the Tiber valley.
The coast of Lazio is mainly composed of sandy beaches, punctuated by the headlands of Cape Circeo (541 m) and Gaeta (171 m). The Pontine Islands, which are part of Lazio, are off Lazio's southern coast. Behind the coastal strip, to the north, lies the Maremma Laziale (the continuation of the Tuscan Maremma), a coastal plain interrupted at Civitavecchia by the Tolfa Mountains (616 m). The central section of the region is occupied by the Roman Campagna, a vast alluvial plain surrounding the city of Rome, with an area of approximately . The southern districts are characterized by the flatlands of Agro Pontino, a once swampy and malarial area, that was reclaimed over the centuries.
The Preapennines of Latium, marked by the Tiber Valley and the Liri with the Sacco tributary, include on the right of the Tiber, three groups of mountains of volcanic origin: the Volsini, Cimini and Sabatini, whose largest former craters are occupied by the Bolsena, Vico and Bracciano lakes. To the south of the Tiber, other mountain groups form part of the Preapennines: the Alban Hills, also of volcanic origin, and the calcareous Lepini, Ausoni and Aurunci Mountains. The Apennines of Latium are a continuation of the Apennines of Abruzzo: the Reatini Mountains with Terminillo (2,213 m), Mounts Sabini, Prenestini, Simbruini and Ernici which continue east of the Liri into the Mainarde Mountains. The highest peak is Mount Gorzano (2,458 m) on the border with Abruzzo.
Climate
The region's climate has considerable variability from area to area. In general, along the coast, there is a Mediterranean climate, the temperature values vary between in January and in July. Towards the interior, the climate is more continental and, on the hills, winters are cold and at night, temperatures can be quite frigid. Among the regional capital cities in Italy, Rome is the one with the highest number of hours of sunshine and days with clear skies during the year.
Demographics
As of 2026, the population is 5,709,444, of which 48.6% are male, and 51.4% are female. Children make up 14.6% of the population, and elderly make up 24.3%.
The overall population density in the region is 331.3 inhabitants per km², higher than the national average of 195.1. However, the provincial population density widely ranges from 787.1 in the highly urbanized Metropolitan City of Rome to 54.3 in the mountainous and rural province of Rieti.
Immigration As of 2025, immigrants make up 13.1% of the population. The five most popular countries of origin are: Romania, Bangladesh, the Philippines, India, and Ukraine.
Largest cities
+Foreign population by country of birth (2025)Country of birthPopulation158,00244,31937,47232,28229,34828,46123,32520,90818,36317,76117,69316,27313,89912,59712,289
Government and politics
Lazio has a system of representative democracy in which the President of the Region () is the head of government and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is vested in the regional government () and legislative power is vested in the Regional Council ().
Rome is centre-left politically oriented by tradition, while the rest of Lazio is centre-right oriented. In the 2008 general election, Lazio gave 44.2% of its vote to the centre-right coalition, while the centre-left block took 41.4% of vote. In the 2013 general election, Lazio gave 40.7% of its vote to the centre-left block coalition, 29.3% to the centre-right coalition and 20.2 to the Five Star Movement.
The current president of Lazio is Francesco Rocca, independent politician and former president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, in office in the centre-right coalition.
Administrative divisions Lazio is divided into four provinces and one metropolitan (province-level) city:
ProvincePopulation (2026)Area (km2)Density(inh./km2)MunicipalitiesProvince of Frosinone460,2663,247.08141.791Province of Latina567,1302,256.16251.433Province of Rieti149,3352,750.5254.373Metropolitan City of Rome Capital4,224,9015,363.28787.7121Province of Viterbo307,8123,615.2485.160
Economy
Agriculture, crafts, animal husbandry and fishery are the main traditional sources of income. Agriculture is characterized by the cultivation of wine grapes, fruit, vegetables and olives. Lazio is the main growing region of kiwifruit in Italy.
Approximately 73% of the working population are employed in the services sector, which contribute 85.8% of regional GDP; this is a considerable proportion, but is justified by the presence of Rome, which is the core of public administration, media, utility, telecommunication, transport, tourism and other sectors. Many national and multinational corporations, public and private, have their headquarters in Rome (ENI, Italiana Petroli, Enel, Acea, Terna, TIM, Poste Italiane, Leonardo, ITA Airways, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, RAI).
Lazio's limited industrial sector and highly developed service industries allowed the region to well outperform the Italian economy during the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession, but it was strongly affected by the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Industrial development in Lazio is limited to the areas south of Rome. Communications and – above all – the setting of the border of the Cassa del Mezzogiorno some kilometers south of Rome have influenced the position of industry, favouring the areas with the best links to Rome and those near the Autostrada del Sole, especially around Frosinone. Additional factor was cheap energy supply from Latina Nuclear Power Plant and Garigliano Nuclear Power Plant, which are now out of operation after the Italian nuclear energy referendum.
Lazio is served by Rome Fiumicino Airport. The airport is the busiest airport in the country, the eighth-busiest airport in Europe and the world's 39th-busiest airport with over 49.2 million passengers served in 2024. Rome Ciampino Airport is the region's second international airport and is mainly serving low-cost carriers.
Industry