The world capital of fashion, design and the financial and industrial center of Italy is located in the north of the country. The city is the capital of the province of the same name and Lombardy, the largest region of Italy. By population, Milan is the second in the country after Rome. The whole world knows this city through two football clubs, “Milan” and “Internationale”, whose fans are almost anywhere in the world. The city attracts tourists from all over the world with its ancient architecture and fashionable shops.
general review
Milan has the second economy among the cities of the European Union, after Paris. In recent decades, this industrial and commercial center has seen recessions and ups, in connection with which the population of Milan is either decreasing or increasing. The city has many industrial enterprises and a large number of offices of global companies, fashion brands and banks. Milan is a world leader in such fields as tourism, fashion, manufacturing, education and art.
This city is one of the most overpopulated and densely populated metropolitan areas in Europe, with a very high population density of approximately 7,385 people / km². Despite some inconvenience of living in such a city, the number of inhabitants has been growing in recent years. This is largely due to the attraction of labor from other European countries. The population of Milan, as a commune - the administrative unit of the country, is currently 1.35 million people.
Urban areas
The city is divided into nine districts, some of which are widely known throughout the world. The historic center, surrounded by a ring road, built back in the 19th century, consists of old buildings and boutiques of fashion houses. This is a haute couture district, where, probably, the highest concentration of stores of famous brands. Another famous area in the western part of the city is San Siro. Here is the football stadium, where two famous clubs alternately play. These two districts of the city most attract people from all over the world. More than 2 million people visit the city annually. This is more than the entire population of Milan.
At the end of the XX and the beginning of the XXI century, the city is being deindustrialized: many large industrial facilities are being moved outside the city limits. Former industrial areas are now built up with shopping, entertainment and residential complexes. Within the administrative borders there is still the production of agricultural machinery and equipment, musical instruments, textile, sewing and leather goods.
Ancient times
Traces of ancient human activity found at the construction site of modern Milan indicate that the population appeared here in the Bronze Age. The first permanent settlement was built by the Gauls around 600 BC, although its name is of Celtic origin. The city is located in the center of the Padan plain, so this place was called Mediolanum (which literally means “in the center of the plain”), which was later converted to Milan. At the beginning of the third century, the city was conquered by the Romans and became the center of the autonomous region. Due to its good geographical position (the city was on the road to the northern part of the country), the population and area of Milan began to grow rapidly. Here, the main lines of defense of the Roman Empire from barbarians from Northern Europe were concentrated. Already in these times, Milan was one of the largest cities in the world.
New time
After experiencing several cycles of decline and growth associated with the conquest of the city by the barbarians, and then by the troops of the Holy Roman Empire, the city began to develop. In the XIII – XIV centuries, Milan with a population of more than 50 thousand people became one of the largest European cities. It was one of the universally recognized centers for the development of capitalism in the world. Until the XV century, it was considered a free commune, then it was under the control of the French, then the Spaniards and Austrians. During the reign of Napoleon, the city was actively built up, many buildings were erected and roads were laid, including the ring road, which, as it were, outlines the historical center. Only in the 19th century did Milan become an Italian city, and even the question of placing the capital of the Italian kingdom here was considered .
During World War II, the capital of Lombardy was heavily destroyed by German aircraft. In memory of this, Monte Stella Hill was poured from the remains of the bombed buildings and a park of 370 thousand square meters was laid out. The population of Milan cherishes the memory of this war.
Geography
The administrative center of the province of Milan and the region of Lombardy, as mentioned above, is located on the Padan Plain and is washed by two rivers flowing into the famous Italian Po. 150 kilometers from the northern district of the city is the border with Switzerland.
Directly the city itself covers an area of about 182 square meters. km Currently, many suburbs and relatively large cities of the region, for example, Monza (117,000 inhabitants), Sesto San Giovanni (75,000) or Cinisello Balsamo (73,000) have almost grown together, forming a large Milan. It is due to the accession of new areas that the number of people in Milan has increased significantly. The urban agglomeration, which has grown more to the north and east, now covers an area of 1,982 square meters. km
Population dynamics
The rebuilding of the city after the great destruction during World War II, and the industrialization that began, quickly increased the population of the city of Milan. The increase in the number of inhabitants was due to the construction of refugee camps, the relocation of a large number of people from the southern regions of Italy and the first Chinese immigrants. The demographic boom in 1970 reached a maximum population of 1.73 million.
From the beginning of the seventies to the beginning of the two thousandths, the population of Milan fell from about 0.59 to 1.57% per year, reaching a minimum in 2010 of 1.24 million people. Such a long time of passing through the depopulation process is associated with a decrease in production volumes in labor-intensive industries such as steel production and light industry. The financial crisis of the 1990s also contributed to the impact on the entire economy of the region as a whole. However, the last census of Milan in 2013 showed that the city coped with these problems, showing an increase of 7%. Since 2011, the number of city residents has been growing at about 2.49% per year. Now the number of Milan residents is 1.35 million inhabitants.
About 200 thousand foreign immigrants live in Milan, which is about 13.9% of the total number of citizens. Here lives the largest community of Chinese, about 21,000, in recent years the number of Filipinos and Sri Lankans has been increasing. Plus, there are quite a few immigrants from Eastern Europe and North Africa.