About 300.000 people live in the city center and 800.000 in the metropolitan area.

Catania has a commercial seaport in the city, an international airport (Catania Fontanarossa) to the South, a central train station (Catania Centrale) on the main lines Messina-Syracuse, Catania-Gela and Catania-Palermo, as well as the privately-owned small-gauge Circumetnea railway which runs for 110 km from Catania round the base of Mount Etna, attaining the height of 976 m above sea level before descending to rejoin the coast at Giarre-Riposto to the North. In the late 1990s/early 2000s the first line of an underground railway was built, under the city, extending the Circumetnea from its stop on the north side of town to the Central Railway Station on the southeast (work in progress).

The metropolitan area of Catania includes the following towns:

• Aci Bonaccorsi

• Aci Castello

• Aci Catena

• Aci Sant'Antonio

• Acireale

• Belpasso

• Camporotondo Etneo

• Gravina di Catania

• Mascalucia

• Misterbianco

• Motta Sant'Anastasia

• Nicolosi

• Paternò

• Pedara

• Ragalna

• San Giovanni La Punta

• San Gregorio di Catania

• San Pietro Clarenza

• Sant'Agata li Battiati

• Santa Maria di Licodia

• Santa Venerina

• Trecastagni

• Tremestieri Etneo

• Valverde

• Viagrande

• Zafferana Etnea