Comune di Pavia, Pavia Municipality

The city of Pavia is the capital of one of the 11 provinces of the Lombardy Region, with a population of 540.376 inhabitants (276.051 female – 264.325 male) [ISTAT database, 01/01/2020]. The Municipality of Pavia administers an area of ​​about 6 sq km with a resident population of 71.882 inhabitants (37.577 female – 34.305 male) [ISTAT database, 01/01/2020]. The city is characterized by the dense presence of both artificial and natural water canals: the Naviglio Pavese canal that connects it to Milan, the Navigliaccio canal, the Vernavola river which crosses the municipality from north to south and the Ticino river that crosses it from east to west to flow, at the municipal borders, into the Po river. The climate is typical of the Po Valley, where Pavia is on average the warmest city in Lombardy regions. The entire municipal area is part of the Ticino Valley Regional Park which protects the flora and fauna of the entire river valley, between Piedmont and Lombardy. Pavia is the only city in the Ticino valley with the inhabited center entirely included within the limits of the interregional park, therefore the strategies identified for improving the quality of life of its inhabitants and guests can constitute good practices to be disseminated in a territory that includes four provinces of the two regions.

The Municipality of Pavia is surrounded by small municipalities with an agricultural and productive vocation, which can also take advantage of the commercial and working opportunities offered by the capital. The neighboring municipalities share with the capital some ecological services and urban and extra-urban mobility and all the social and ecological problems related to the territory, air quality, mobility and resilience to climate change. The catchment area of ​​the city of Pavia, including neighboring municipalities, reaches an area of ​​about 20 sq km, with a population of about 120,000 resident inhabitants. On the municipal territory there are also some excellences at national and international level: the University of Pavia, the Policlinico S. Matteo Hospital, the Hadrontherapy Center for the treatment of tumors at a cellular level, the Mondino Foundation for research and treatment of cerebro-vascular pathologies, the Maugeri foundation for the research and treatment of pathologies and accidents related to work activities. Due to the massive presence of high quality Tertiary in the Pavia area, the city attracts users of the services offered, patients under treatment, high school and university students from all over the state. The city therefore offers numerous public and private accommodation facilities, capable of permanently hosting around 30,000 users, in addition to the resident population.

Considering the project target population, the town of Pavia catalyses a very large student and youth population, not only residing in the urban area.

The educational and traning system for young people aged 16 and over is composed as described below:

• 8 pubblic high schools attended by about 9,000 students, of which 75% come from the municipalities of the peri-urban belt and from the whole province;

• 6 vocational training centers;

• one of the oldest and most important University in Italy and Europe, attended by ca. 24,000 students from all over Italy and abroad, thanks to numerous exchanges with universities all over the world (more than 400 collaboration agreements with universities foreign and over 700 Erasmus agreements);

• 20 university colleges, of which 11 EDiSU colleges (public ones), which constitute an "integrated service systems" responding to multiple student needs, not only logistical and basic instrumental, but also educational and cultural, social and relational integration;

As a provincial capital - and of a reference territory that goes beyond the provincial administrative borders, in the direction of Milan, first of all, but also of Lomellina, Oltrepò, Lodigiano - Pavia also represents an important pole of "temporary populations", including many young people and young adults who attend and enjoy the city, more or less permanently for leisure, services and work. Pavia is also a town of migratory flows: new foreign populations enter temporarily or permanently the urban territory, bearing diversified cultures and ways of relating.
The attention of the administration of Pavia is therefore focused on EU projects and partnerships, youth policies, town-twinnings, sport, cultural herritage valorization and gender equality.