On the basis of the frequency and intensity of past earthquakes, 45% of the land area of Italy is divided up into 3 earthquake zones: Category 1 (red) is the most severe, and Category 3 (yellow) the least severe zone of seismic activity:
Note that nearly all of La Marche and Umbria, and over half of Tuscany lie within one of these earthquake zones. In fact, 40% of the Italian population live in them.
The rest of the country, coloured white on the map, is unclassified - which means it is considered low risk. Note that this area includes all of the Piedmont wine region.
