Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the northwest. Piedmont borders Switzerland to the north and France to the west.
Piedmont has an area of , making it the 2nd-largest region of Italy in area after Sicily. With a population of 4,255,006, it is the 7th most populous region as of 2026. The capital of Piedmont is Turin, which was the first capital of the Kingdom of Italy, from 1861 to 1865.
Etymology The French Piedmont, the Italian Piemonte, and other variant cognates come from the medieval Latin or , i.e. , meaning "at the foot of the mountains" (referring to the Alps), attested in documents from the end of the 12th century.
History
Piedmont was inhabited in early historic times by Celtic-Ligurian tribes such as the Taurini and the Salassi. They were later subdued by the Romans (), who founded several colonies there including Augusta Taurinorum (Turin) and Eporedia (Ivrea). After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was successively invaded by the Burgundians, the Ostrogoths (5th century), East Romans, Lombards (6th century), and Franks (773).
In the 9th–10th centuries there were further incursions by the Magyars, Saracens and Muslim Moors. At the time Piedmont, as part of the Kingdom of Italy within the Holy Roman Empire, was subdivided into several marches and counties. In 1046, Otto of Savoy added Piedmont to the County of Savoy, with a capital at Chambéry (now in France). Other areas remained independent, such as the powerful comuni (municipalities) of Asti and Alessandria and the marquisates of Saluzzo and Montferrat. The County of Savoy became the Duchy of Savoy in 1416, and Duke Emanuele Filiberto moved the seat to Turin in 1563. In 1720, the Duke of Savoy became King of Sardinia, founding what evolved into the Kingdom of Sardinia and increasing Turin's importance as a European capital.
The Republic of Alba was created in 1796 as a French client republic in Piedmont. A new client republic, the Piedmontese Republic, existed between 1798 and 1799 before it was reoccupied by Austrian and Russian troops. In June 1800, a third client republic, the Subalpine Republic, was established in Piedmont. It fell under full French control in 1801, and France annexed it in September 1802. In the Congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Sardinia was restored and furthermore received the Republic of Genoa to strengthen it as a barrier against France.
Piedmont was a springboard for Italian unification in 1859–1861, following earlier unsuccessful wars against the Austrian Empire in 1820–1821, and 1848–1849. This process is sometimes referred to as Piedmontisation.Collier, p. 75. The efforts were later countered by the efforts of rural farmers.Valeria Fargion, From the Southern to the Northern Question: Territorial and Social Politics in Italy , paper presented at the RC 19 conference 'Welfare state restructuring: processes and social outcomes', 2–4 September 2004, Sciences-Po Paris. Retrieved 7 January 2007.Anna Bull, Regionalism in Italy , Europa 2(4). Retrieved 7 January 2007. The House of Savoy became Kings of Italy, and Turin briefly became the capital of Italy. However, when the Italian capital was moved to Florence, and then to Rome, the administrative and institutional importance of Piedmont was reduced. The only recognition of Piedmont's historical role was that the crown prince of Italy was known as the Prince of Piedmont. After Italian unification, Piedmont was one of the most important regions in the first Italian industrialization.Marco Meriggi, (1996). Breve Storia dell'Italia Settentrionale, dall'Ottocento a Oggi. 1st ed. Italy: Donzelli Editore, Rome.
Geography
Piedmont is surrounded on three sides by the Alps, including Monviso, where the river Po rises, and Monte Rosa. It borders France (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur), Switzerland (Ticino and Valais), and the Italian regions of Lombardy, Liguria, Aosta Valley, and for a very small part with Emilia Romagna. The geography of Piedmont is 43.3% mountainous, along with extensive areas of hills (30.3%) and plains (26.4%).
Piedmont is the second largest of Italy's 20 regions, after Sicily. It is broadly coincident with the upper part of the drainage basin of the river Po, which rises from the slopes of Monviso in the west of the region and is Italy's largest river. The Po drains the semicircle formed by the Alps and Apennines, which surround the region on three sides.
The countryside is very diverse: from the rugged peaks of the massifs of Monte Rosa and Gran Paradiso to the damp rice paddies of Vercelli and Novara, from the gentle hillsides of the Langhe, Roero, and Montferrat to the plains. 7.6% of the entire territory is considered protected area. There are 56 different national or regional parks; one of the most famous is the Gran Paradiso National Park, between Piedmont and the Aosta Valley.
Piedmont has a typically temperate climate, which on the Alps becomes progressively temperate-cold and colder as it climbs to altitude. In areas located at low altitudes, winters are relatively cold but not very rainy and often sunny, with the possibility of snowfall, sometimes abundant. Snowfall, on the other hand, is less frequent and occasional in the northeast areas. Summers are hot with local possibilities of strong thunderstorms.
Demographics
As of 2026, the population is 4,255,006, of which 49.0% are male, and 51.0% are female. Minors make up 13.7% of the population, and seniors make up 27.2%.
The population density in Piedmont is lower than the national average, at 167.5 inhabitants per km2 compared to the national figure of 195.1. The Metropolitan City of Turin has 323.0 inhabitants per km2, whereas Verbano-Cusio-Ossola is the least densely populated province, with only 67.5 inhabitants per km2.
The population of Piedmont followed a downward trend throughout the 1980s, a result of the natural negative balance (of some 3 to 4% per year), while the migratory balance since 1986 has again become positive because of immigration.
Foreigners As of 2025, immigrants make up 13.2% of the total population. The 5 largest foreign countries of birth are Romania, Morocco, Albania, Peru, and Ukraine. +Foreign population by country of birth (2025)Country of birthPopulation112,22067,63553,93120,09016,95315,49315,24614,68213,05912,56812,50111,98810,42410,1849,687
Government and politics
The Regional Government (Giunta Regionale) is presided by the president of the region (presidente della regione), who is elected for a five-year term and is composed of the president and 14 ministers, including a vice president (vice presidente). In the 2010 Piedmontese regional election, which took place on 29–30 March, Roberto Cota of Lega Nord defeated incumbent Mercedes Bresso of the Democratic Party (PD). For the 2014 Piedmontese regional election, Cota chose not to stand again for president and the parties composing his coalition failed to agree on a single candidate, resulting in a landslide victory for Sergio Chiamparino, a member of the PD who had been mayor of Turin from 2001 to 2011. Chiamparino was in charge until the 2019 Piedmontese regional election, when Alberto Cirio of Forza Italia became the new president of the region.
Administrative divisions
Piedmont is divided into 8 provinces.
ProvincePopulation (2026) (On the search form, choose the statistical region of the municipality in the Area section, the Region, the Province, and the name of the Municipality)The file URL linking on technical dataset.Area (km2)Density Province of Alessandria 408,063 3,558.83 114.7 Province of Asti 207,059 1,510.19 137.1 Province of Biella 168,223 913.28 184.2 Province of Cuneo 582,109 6,894.94 84.4 Province of Novara 365,930 1,340.28 273.0 Metropolitan City of Turin 2,204,779 6,827.00 322.9 Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola 152,677 2,260.91 67.5 Province of Vercelli 166,166 2,081.64 79.8
Economy The gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was 137.4 billion euros in 2018, accounting for 7.8% of Italy's GDP. GDP per capita at purchasing power parity was 31,300 euros or 104% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 111% of the EU average. Since 2006, the Piemonte Agency for Investments, Export and Tourism began to facilitate outside investment and promote Piedmont's industry and tourism. It was the first Italian institution to combine the activities being carried out by pre-existing local organizations to promote the territory internationally.
Automotive
The region contains major industrial centres, the most important of which is Turin, home to the Fiat conglomerate, but mass-market Fiat cars are not produced anymore, only small-scale manufacturing of luxury Maserati cars (36,702 in 2020). Most of the ex-Fiat plants now belong to other companies: aerospace is owned by Leonardo S.p.A., turbo jet engines by General Electric, high-speed trains by Alstom, bearings by SKF. Fiat no longer exists as an independent company; car production belongs to Stellantis, and trucks, buses, tractors, agriculture and construction machines are produced by the independent company CNH Industrial (most manufacturing activity takes place in the United States, in Piedmont only the production of New Holland excavators in San Mauro Torinese and Iveco diesel engines in Turin). Neither of them are headquartered in Turin anymore, however, some research and development centres are still working.
Formerly famous automotive design companies also were sold to global automotive groups: Italdesign Giugiaro to Volkswagen, Ghia to Ford, Pininfarina to Mahindra; Bertone went into bankruptcy in 2014. The massive decline in the automotive industry caused other regions like Veneto (€163 billion in 2018) and Emilia-Romagna (€161 billion in 2018) to surpass Piedmont (€137 billion in 2018) in GDP and led to relative high unemployment. The peak of Italian motor vehicle production is reached in 1989 with 2.22 million units, but in 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy) it was only 0.92 million units. Even existing Italian car production now relocated to Southern Italy, such as in Pomigliano d'Arco (140,478 in 2020), Melfi (229,848 in 2020), and Atessa (257,026 in 2020), because of cost cutting.
There are some automotive suppliers of: exhaust systems, electronic systems, suspension systems and automotive lighting in Venaria Reale and Rivalta di Torino from Magneti Marelli dual-clutch transmission, gearboxes, drivelines and their mechatronics components from Dana Graziano bearings from SKF tires (Michelin and Pirelli)
Electronics and industrial equipment There are some important companies in high-tech manufacturing: Comau (industrial robots) and Prima Industrie (laser equipment). Silicon wafer production is in Novara by MEMC. Olivetti, once a major electronics industry whose plants were in Scarmagno and Ivrea, has now turned into a small-scale computer service company and no longer produces computers. Leonardo Elettronica in Turin-Caselle develops and manufactures airborne mission systems and airborne computers. Machine building has a long tradition in Piedmont with the manufacturing of excavators, telescopic handlers, industrial refrigerators, printing machines, paper machines, packaging machines, glass machines, turbines, and high-speed trains.
Aerospace and defence One of the most important industries in Piedmont is military aerospace with plants:
Leonardo Aircraft Turin-Caselle (Nord and Sud), final assembly of multi-role attack jet Eurofighter Typhoon, ground-attack jet AMX and military transport aircraft C-27J Spartan Leonardo Aircraft Novara-Cameri, final assembly of stealth multi-role attack jet Lockheed Martin F-35