HI
I live in Italy and I am a Senior IV competitor for latin and standard fance (here in Italy they are considered as different categories).
Social dance is very spread in Italy; every one of the 20 regions of this Country has its own way of "interpreting" some of the basic dances, which led to the acknowledged dance specialties to achieve full dignity in the Italian Championship. So for instance if you live in Bologna, in an area of roughly 600.000 people, you can dance the so-called Filuzziano in the dancing places and then compete at national level, and the same goes for instance for Disco Fox in South Tirol. Moreover, the various interpretations of the various dances for the "balere" (dancing places) have become a separate category in the Italian dance world, which falls under the category of Ballo da Sala (literal English translation: Ballroom dancing, which is however misleading), and you can dance these dances everywhere in Italy. Then there is the so-called Liscio Unificato (Standard Smooth, so to say) which is an attempt at codifying all the various popular dances, and which is quite physically demanding, similar to high-class Quick Step, though with less figures.
Italians dance everyday, or better every night, in various types of dancing places, and moreover they dance outdoor at any country feast, on ony occasion where this is feasible, with live or recorded music.
Going to standard dance the situation is quite different. Standard is danced basically only in the school gyms, and this applies to latin too. Caraibic dances, on the contrary are very popular with the young AND with the no longer so youg, whereas line dancing and argentine tango are making a noun for themselves.
In conclusion, let me mention that FIDS, Italian Dance Sport Federation, counts more members than Football!