Among the populations of pre-Roman Italy, the most notable are the Etruscans who, starting from the eighth century BCE, create a refined civilization that largely influences Rome and the Latin world.

The origins of this non-Indo-European people, which first settles on the Tyrrhenian coast of central Italy and later expands to northern Italy (Emilia in particular) and Campania, are uncertain.

Other peoples living in northern Italy include the Ligurians (an Indo-European people who live in what is now Liguria, southern Piedmont and the southern French coast), the Lepontii, Insubres, Orobii and other Celtic tribes in Piedmont and Lombardy, the Veneti of north-eastern Italy.

In the peninsula, alongside the Etruscans, live numerous tribes, mostly of Indo-European origin: the Umbri in Umbria and northern Abruzzo, the Latins, who will create the Roman civilization, Sabellians, Falisci, Volsci and Aequi in the Latium; Piceni in the Marche and north-east Abruzzo; Samnites in southern Abruzzo, Molise and Campania; Daunians, Messapii and Peucetii (forming the Apulian or Iapygian confederation) in Apulia; Lucani and Bruttii in the southern tips of the peninsula.

In Sicily live the Sicels, Elymians and Sicani while Sardinia is still inhabited by the Nuragic peoples.

Later, other peoples will settle in the Italian territory, cohabiting with the previous inhabitants: new tribes of Celts in the north (Senones, Boii, Lingones etc.), the Greeks and the Phoenicians in the south and in part of Sicily and Sardinia.