The data available in OpenCivitas web portal were collected through questionnaires submitted to local authorities and integrated with data from other official sources (Ministry of the Interior, ISTAT, MIM, Revenue Agency, etc.).

In this way, a new database was built allowing to analyse in detail outputs, inputs, management methods and organizational choices adopted by local authorities in service provision.

Standard expenditure needs measure a local authority’s financial need considering territorial features and sociodemographic characteristics of resident population.

For Municipalities it is a coefficient that represents the share of expenditure attributable to each municipality, given that 1 stands for the overall expenditure for a specific service.

For the Wider Area Authorities, standard needs are indexes of financial needs expressed in monetary value.

The historical expenditure is the actual amount spent by a municipality in one year to provide services to citizens and is calculated on the basis of the information collected through questionnaires.

For the municipal sector historical expenditure does not include user contributions and interest expense.

For the Wider Area Authorities, the historical expenditure takes into account the fundamental shares of expenditure possibly accounted for in other missions and including labour costs net of expenses for natural disaster and off-balance sheet debts. For the identification of of the historical expenditure of the Administration, contributions to public finance have also been excluded.

The Standard expenditure of a local authority corresponds to its current expenditure obtained by multiplying overall historical expenditure of all local authorities by the allotment coefficient relating to each local authority's standard expenditure need.

The total standard expenditure is calculated by aggregating the distribution coefficients of the individual services according to the procedure provided by the CTFS (Technical Commission Standard Requirements) and does not correspond to the sum of the standard expenses of each service.

In the Wider Area Authorities the total standard needs is the sum of the standard needs of each service.

The LEPs are indicators relating to the enjoyment of civil and social rights that must be determined and guaranteed, on the national territory, with the function of protecting economic unity and social cohesion, removing economic and social imbalances and providing policy guidance to regions and local authorities when drawing up their budgets and carrying out the tasks assigned to them. Their determination is the exclusive competence of the State pursuant to art. 117 of the Constitution, the principles of which are essentially reflected in the right of all citizens to health and social care, education, social security benefits for workers, etc.

Service targets represent a kind of virtual minimum level of service for all municipalities and in this sense should be considered as steps towards the LEPs.

The correction of errors and changes requested by local authorities take place periodically with the support of the documentation provided by the authorities themselves. The database of standard needs has been updated. annually using the information requested by submitting questionnaires, allowing methodologies based on panel data to be applied.

The functions available in OpenCivitas for the municipalities are:  

  • Administration Services,
  • Public Roads and Planning,
  • il trasporto pubblico locale,
  • Waste Management,
  • Social Care and nursery services,
  • Police,
  • Education.

The feature related to local Public Transport hasn't been added to OpenCivitas because the historical spending data to refer to isn't yet consistently calculable for the Italian municipalities that provide this service.

The functions available in OpenCivitas for the Wider Area Authorities are:  

  • Administration
  • Territory
  • Environment
  • Education
  • Transportation /
  • Provincial police
  • Single contracting entity
  • Equal opportunities
  • Exclusive functions Metropolitan cities
  • Exclusive functions Mountain provinces

    Since 2017 financial year, methodological innovations were introduced that led to changes in various services/functions. Therefore, from the year in which the methodological change was implemented, the results for each individual function and the overall aggregate are not comparable with previous years.

    For more details, see the methodological notes:

    Aggiornamento e revisione della metodologia dei fabbisogni standard dei Comuni per il 2021

    Aggiornamento e revisione della metodologia dei fabbisogni standard dei Comuni per il 2022

    Aggiornamento e revisione della metodologia dei fabbisogni standard dei Comuni per il 2023

    Aggiornamento e revisione della metodologia dei fabbisogni standard dei Comuni per il 2024

    Aggiornamento e revisione della metodologia dei fabbisogni standard dei Comuni per il 2025

    Aggiornamento e revisione della metodologia dei fabbisogni standard dei Comuni per il 2026

    The calculations relating to the years 2018 and 2022 are comparable with each other as they are the result of the application of the same methodology.

    To allow citizens to assess the level of historical expenditure for each service provided by the local authority. The difference in euro is positive when the historical expenditure is higher than the standard, it is negative when the standard expenr ditu e is higher than the historical.

    To allow citizens to assess the level of historical expenditure of each service offered by their authority. The difference expressed in euros is positive when the historical expenditure is higher than the standard needs, negative when the standard needs is higher than the historical expenditure.

    A historical expenditure exceeding the standard indicates that the expenditure incurred by a local authority is higher than the average expenditure in municipalities with the same number of inhabitants.

    The difference between standard and historical expenditure is not enough to assess the efficiency of a local authority. The difference can depend on the efficiency in providing services, the quality, and the quantity of services offered.

    An amount of services greater than the standard indicates that the municipality provides more services than those averagely provided by other local authorities with the same number of inhabitants.

    The standard level of services of each municipality is the amount of services averagely provided by local authorities with similar characteristics in relation to each function.

    The load factors refer to exogenous components that are not directly attributable to the discretionary choices of local governments, but are directly linked to the demand expressed by other higher-level Administrations and other actors outside the Local Authority.

    The levels of the services provided measure the services provided by a municipality in relation to the average of the municipalities with the same number of inhabitants.

    For municipalities, the standard expenditure need drivers measure, for each local authority, the relative impact of the variables used to determine both the overall standard expenditure need and the expenditure needs associated with individual services. These indicators therefore highlight the characteristics of each authority that predominantly contribute to generating its standard expenditure need.

    For wider area authorities, the standard expenditure need drivers measure, for each entity, the relative impact of the variables used to determine both the overall standard expenditure need and the expenditure needs associated with individual services. These indicators therefore identify the characteristics of each authority that predominantly contribute to generating its standard expenditure need.

    The Municipal Solidarity Fund (FSC) was established by the Stability Law no. 228/2012 and began to be applied in 2015. It is an equalization fund through which the needs and fiscal capacity are allocated to local authorities. This tool allows overcoming historical expenditure by equalizing payments based on standardized criteria.

    The Fund should have achieved 100% of the equalization by 2021 by allocating increasing shares of resources. However, the 2019 stability law and the subsequent Decree Law No. 124/2019 postponed the deadline to 2030, increasing by 5% per year the resources allocated to municipalities.

    Paragraph 783 of Article 1 of Law No. 178 of 2020 provides that "From the year 2022, current contributions and funds allocated to the provinces and metropolitan cities of Ordinary Statute Regions converge into two specific funds to be allocated taking into account progressively the difference between standard needs and fiscal capacity".

    In spite of the establishment of two distinct funds, one for provinces and the other for metropolitan cities, the functioning mechanism of both is the same and allows a gradual transition towards a distribution based on standard needs and fiscal capacity. The progression of equalization is coordinated with the increase in vertical resources as established by Paragraph 785-bis of Article 1 of Law No. 178 of 2020.

    The operating mechanism is based on two types of allocation:

    • the horizontal redistribution of the net contribution to public finance according to standard needs and fiscal capacity
    • the distribution of the vertical contribution on the basis of standard needs only.