Subject: Comune di Venezia, historic centre (centro storico) Assessment focus: Resident population decline and the policy response to visitor volume The historic centre of Venice has lost more than seventy per cent of its resident population since the early 1950s and now houses fewer people than a mid-sized market town, while receiving visitor volumes among the highest per resident of any urban area in Europe. Policy intervention to date has targeted visitor flow rather than the housing and employment conditions driving residents out.