How good is this area to live in?
Enter an address and see straight away, for free, the liveability index for the area: a number from 0 to 100 made of services on foot, transport, green space, natural hazards, air, quiet, buildings and internet.
For example: Via Dante 7, Milan.
Straight away and free: the liveability index for the area and the cadastral parcel. If you want to know everything about the property, you can buy the full report, with 32 topics and the buying guide.
The index is our own measure, not official data. We calculate it from the same topics as the report, always with the same method: it tells you whether the area is convenient, green and quiet, and where the weak points are. All it takes is the address, and it costs nothing; with a free account you can see more of them every day. Below you will find what the Vicinalia liveability index is made of, how much each part weighs and what it does not measure. If other things matter to you, you can build your own index.
What it is made of
Eight parts, each with its own score from 0 to 100. The index is the weighted average.
| Part | Weight | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|
| Services on foot | 25% | Two halves. Essential services: schools, clinics, pharmacies and supermarkets, 100 points if there is one within 500 metres, 60 within a kilometre, 0 beyond, then the average. Neighbourhood life: how many businesses there are within 500 metres among bars, restaurants, food shops, healthcare and sport; 10 are worth 30 points, 40 are worth 60, 120 are worth 85, 300 or more 100. |
| Transport | 15% | Stops within 500 metres from the transport operators' official timetables: 100 with metro or train, 85 with at least 3 tram lines, 75 with fewer, 70 with at least 4 bus routes, 55 with fewer. Where there are no timetables, the distance from the railway station counts and the report marks it as an estimate. |
| Green space | 10% | Two measures combined. First: how much of the surrounding kilometre is woodland, natural grassland or a large park, from the European CORINE map, which only records areas of 25 hectares and over (40% already scores 100); farmland counts for 30%, because you cannot walk in it as you would in a wood or a park. Second: the best public park or garden within a kilometre, with its real size from OpenStreetMap: 25 points for a garden under a hectare, 50 for a park of 1 to 25 hectares, 75 for a large park over 25; the value is full up to 300 metres and falls to half at a kilometre. Every other park of a hectare or more within 600 metres adds 5 points, up to 10. The two measures add up without going over 100: a house in the woods reaches 100, a city flat next to a large park stays a little below. |
| Natural hazard safety | 15% | Landslides, floods and earthquakes, from the result of the same topics in the report: 100 if favourable, 55 if to consider, 15 if critical. |
| Air | 10% | Nitrogen dioxide and fine particles PM2.5, yearly average from the European Environment Agency maps, half and half. For each: 100 up to the World Health Organization recommendations, 80 at the legal limit that applies from 2030, 50 at today's limit, then down to 15; between thresholds the score falls in a straight line. |
| Noise from railways, major roads and airports | 15% | Railway tracks, motorways and dual carriageways from the OpenStreetMap map, with the statutory bands: 25 points within 100 metres, 55 between 100 and 250. A main road counts for less, because the map does not say how much traffic uses it: 50 if the house faces it (within 30 metres), 75 within 100. Near an airport, 30 within 2 kilometres, 60 within 5. The worst case counts. |
| Local buildings | 5% | State of repair of the buildings, from the 2011 Istat census, the latest one that describes it. Age does not count: a well-kept period building is worth as much as a new one. |
| Internet connection | 5% | Expected fixed network speed declared by operators to AGCOM: 100 with fibre to the home. |
If data is missing for a part, it is left out and its weight is shared among the others: the report says which are missing. With fewer than four parts out of eight the index is not calculated.
A serious risk cannot be offset
If landslides, floods or earthquakes have a critical result, the index cannot go above 60, even with excellent services and plenty of green space. A home in an area that floods often cannot come out as "excellent".
The bands
- 90-100: excellent liveability
- 80-89: very good
- 65-79: good
- 50-64: fair
- 35-49: modest
- 0-34: poor
What it does not measure
- People. No income, age or origin of residents: the index describes the place, not the people who live there.
- Actual traffic. The noise part looks at how close railways, major roads and airports are, not at how many trains or cars go by: there is no open traffic data. Bars and venues are not counted yet.
- Crime. There is no open data by neighbourhood.
- The flat itself. Floor, orientation and condition of the property are not in the index: they need a visit and a surveyor.
How to read it
Two areas with the same number can be very different: one has everything close by but little green space, the other the opposite. That is why the report always shows the eight parts, with the detail of each and the source of every figure.
Your index
With a free account you can change the index your way: remove the parts you do not care about, change the weight of those that remain and add others. For example the nearest state nursery or primary school, a pharmacy, the metro, cycle paths, few bars downstairs, the sea, or landslides, floods and earthquakes one by one. For distances you choose the radius, and for schools whether only state schools count or private recognised ones too.
From then on, in your reports and searches you see "Your liveability index", with the Vicinalia index next to it for comparison. It also applies to reports you already have: the index is worked out again from their data. The "Customise your index" button is under the index, and you can change your choice whenever you like in your account settings.
Two rules always stay. A critical natural hazard caps the index at 60, whatever the weights. And who lives there is not counted: age, households and origin of the residents cannot be weighted, because the index measures the place, not the people. That data stays in the report, in the "Who lives there" section, as information.
Area by area
As well as for an address, we work out the index at the centre of every inhabited census area in Italy, about 450,000 areas, with the same method. Each municipality page has a map with the colour of every area and the share of residents living in excellent, very good, good, fair, modest or poor areas. The colour is the value at the centre of the area: for an exact address, the check on that address is what counts. The map is redone every three months.
The map by area always uses the Vicinalia liveability index, the same for everyone. The values by area are also derived from the ISPRA map of flood-prone areas, which is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, so they carry the same licence. With a Pro or Studio plan you can show the index of the area on your own website, for example on a listing page, with the widget.
Method version 2026-09-30. If we change weights or thresholds we will say so here, with the date.
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2026-09-30: tests on Milan's neighbourhoods. In a city, schools, pharmacies and stops are almost everywhere, so services and transport did not tell a convenient area from an inconvenient one, and green space and noise were left to make the difference, in favour of the outskirts. What changes: services on foot also count neighbourhood life (bars, restaurants, food shops, healthcare and sport within 500 metres) and go up to 25%; metro and train count for more than tram, tram more than bus; green space goes down to 10% and farmland counts less than woods and parks; buildings count only for their state of repair, no longer for their age. New "very good" band between 80 and 89.
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2026-09-29: noise goes from 5% to 15%, with 10 points taken from services on foot (from 25% to 20%) and transport (from 20% to 15%). It is measured from the actual railway tracks rather than from the station, and motorways, dual carriageways and main roads are added, from the OpenStreetMap map.
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2026-09-23: air is added, at 10%. The points come from distance from stations and airports (from 10% to 5%), which only measures trains and aircraft, and from local buildings (from 10% to 5%), which come from the 2011 census.
Liveability index free for any address
Land sheet 6 free checks
Check an address
Enter the address: the report summarises risks, local prices, population, services and transport, with the source for every figure.
For example: Via Dante 7, Milan.