Istat has just published data on the extent of museums in Italy, after 15 years from the previous year. The situation in 2006 saw more than one municipality out of four have at least one museum, for a total of 4742, while non-state museums are 4340. In Europe only Germany beat these figures with 6175 between museums and similar institutions. Then there are the United Kingdom with around 2,000 museums, Spain and France with 1,500 museums by 1173. In other European countries, museums are less than 1000.