Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, 30 December 2020 – In the year marked by the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, Milan welcomed around 9 thousand new Milanese citizens: Leonardo, Sofia - these are the most chosen names of all for boys and girls, both among Italian and foreign couples - and all the others are born between January 1st and December 29th this year. For each of them, a tree will be planted in the city during the agronomic season (there are actually more than 20 thousand new trees that will be planted in the Milan area between November and March 2021).

Despite the absolute halt to ceremonies established by the Government between 8 March and 7 May and the resumption of celebrations in a limited manner (only the spouses, two witnesses and the officiant), 1.650 couples were united in civil marriages (1.257), religious (281) and civil unions (112). Of these, more than 70% are represented by Italian couples, 20% 'mixed', the remaining part foreign.
To date, civil ceremonies take place in the Training Hall in via Larga, still in a reduced form and always with the obligation to wear personal protective equipment.

At the end of the year there were 1.392.802 Milanese residents. The figure is affected by the decline in births and the increase in deaths (16.692 in all of 2020) also due to the Covid-19 health emergency. But not only. Over the months of smartworking, with the natural decrease in some services, the Registry Offices were able to carry out a timely check on registry cancellations due to unavailability, certifying around 6 thousand of them. These are complex practices, which often require several months to be completed; since 2018, the year in which the permanent population census came into force, they have been carried out more regularly.

"Although this Administration was already on the road to innovation - comments the councilor for Digital Transformation and Civic Services Roberta Cocco -, the consequences of the pandemic crisis have led to a sudden acceleration of digital services, which we have strengthened and implemented thanks to the work done starting from 2016. 2020 was the year in which we launched the Citizen's File app, which in just 6 months went from 7 thousand to 70 thousand downloads; the year in which the certificates requested online came close to 90% of the total, as well as the registration procedures for the main services of the Municipality, for competitions, the request for shopping vouchers, just to name a few examples. Furthermore, smartworking has allowed employees of the Citizen Services area, usually working at the counter , to work around 24 thousand cases remotely, managing to eliminate pending requests. Even in the dramatic moments of the pandemic, the Municipality remained close to the citizens and did so thanks to the work of the women and men employed in our offices".