Foreign workers' remittances

The data on foreign workers' remittances report the transfers of money sent abroad by foreign workers by means of payment institutions or other authorized intermediaries without using bank accounts (settlement in cash).

Published data are updated quarterly; since 2016 data are available on a quarterly basis with the breakdown by receiving foreign country; on an annual basis they are available with the additional detail of the Italian province where the sender is located.

Foreign workers' remittances in 2025

In the fourth quarter of 2025, workers' remittances sent abroad by foreign residents in Italy increased by 2.4 per cent compared with the same period of the previous year (Table 1).

Annual growth was equal to €323 million compared with 2024 (+3.9 per cent); increases in flows towards Asia (392 million; +11.5 per cent), North Africa and the Near East (€59 million; +6.4 per cent) and extra-EU European countries (€11 million; +1.0 per cent), more than offset the decline in remittances sent to the remaining areas, particularly sub-Saharan Africa (€ ‑91 million; -8.2 per cent) and EU countries (€ ‑41 million; -6.4 per cent).

In 2025, Bangladesh remains the leading recipient country of remittances from Italy, with its share of the total flow rising to 19.6 percent; it is followed by India (6.9 percent), whose share has grown significantly (it ranked sixth in 2024), and Morocco, with a slightly decreased share of 6.7 percent, just above the Philippines (Table 2).

As in 2024, the regions that recorded the largest increase in outward remittances compared with the previous year were Campania and Lazio. The share accounted for by the three most important regions in terms of flows remains stable: Lombardy (21.7 per cent of the national total), Lazio (16.2 per cent), and Emilia-Romagna (9.4 per cent; Table 3). The overall increase in remittances compared with the previous year was driven mainly by flows to Bangladesh, particularly from the provinces of Rome and Naples (Figure 1).

Table 1: Workers' remittances sent abroad from Italy

(millions of euros, percentage changes, percentage shares)

Table 1