13. Accordingly, a stateless person as someone ‘who is not considered as a national by any State under operation of its law’.12 As elaborated in UNHCR guidance, this means that a person who is not recognised as a citizen of the states with which he or she has relevant ties – either because the legal framework explicitly excludes the person, or because the competent authorities of the state implement (or fail to implement) the law so as to deny nationality – is stateless. Identifying statelessness is therefore a mixed question of both fact and law.13 Stateless Population Data 14. As the Council of the European Union has elaborated, states should collect reliable quantitative and qualitative data on statelessness and adopt and strengthen measures to count stateless persons on their territory.14 The Italian national census form provides for capturing data on statelessness. However, this only records those who have been granted stateless status, residing legally in Italy (732 people - 377 men and 355 women - as of 1 January 2018). Further, there are other census categories that may overlap with stateless people, meaning that the existing data does not provide a full picture.15 Statelessness has not been comprehensively mapped in Italy although some studies have attempted to document statelessness among the Roma population only. These studies provide estimates ranging between 3000-15000 Roma people who are either stateless or at risk of statelessness in Italy.16 15. Figures for stateless refugees and asylum seekers, and stateless people held in immigration detention, are not published by the Government, although an aggregate category of 'other - including stateless and nationality unknown etc.' is reported by the Ministry of Interior.17 For all of these reasons, data on the stateless population in Italy is very likely underreported as the authorities count only people who have been recognised as stateless in a dedicated determination procedure. http://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/atto/serie_generale/caricaDettaglioAtto/originario?atto.dataPubblicazioneGazzetta=1 962-06-07&atto.codiceRedazionale=062U0306&elenco30giorni=false 12Article 1, United Nations Conventions Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. 13UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, 30 June 2014, Para 23 14Conclusions of the Council of the European Union and the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States on Statelessness, 4 December 2015, http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/pressreleases/2015/12/04/council-adopts-conclusions-on-statelessness/ 15ISTAT data on stateless people by sex and region of residence including trends in recent years: https://www.tuttitalia.it/statistiche/cittadini-stranieri/apolidi/ 16CIR, IN THE SUN, Survey on the phenomenon of statelessness among Roma communities living in Italy, February 2013: http://www.cir-onlus.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/In-the-sun_CIR_last-review_final.pdf 17http://www.libertaciviliimmigrazione.dlci.interno.gov.it/it/documentazione/statistica/i-numeri-dellasilo 4