The country that invented ruzzola by rolling a wheel of cheese down the road, and that now watches tennis almost as much as football.
The most-followed sport in Italy is football: 54% of the population follow it. It is followed by tennis (40%), volleyball (27%), swimming (26%) and athletics (26%). Below you will find the numbers, the sports that hold events in Italy, the games from Italy you can play free on FirstPlace.games, and every source.
They add up to more than 100 on purpose. Share of the population that follows each sport. The same person follows several sports, so there is no whole to split: that is why these are bars and not a pie chart. Osservatorio Branded Entertainment with Ipsos Doxa, May 2026: 1,000 people aged 18 to 64.
| Sport | Of the population |
|---|---|
| Football | 54% |
| Tennis | 40% |
| Volleyball | 27% |
| Swimming | 26% |
| Athletics | 26% |
Only events of global scale are listed here. Italy hosts many more local and national competitions that are not on this list.
What the country that watches football and tennis puts on the table, from the simple to the everyday. Each food shows its composition per 100 g, from the USDA database.
The base of the table: mostly carbohydrate, with very little fat.
A table staple that is almost half carbohydrate by weight.
A hard cheese: concentrated protein and fat, almost no carbohydrate.
Pure fat: the most concentrated source of energy in Italian cooking.
It hardly supplies any energy: more a habit than a fuel.