The town has a large Slovene population, with Slovenian being widely used alongside Italian in private and public institutions.

During the Fascist regime, the name was first Italianized into Villa Opicina, and subsequently renamed to Poggioreale del Carso.

[2] In the following decades, this number fell significantly: according to the census of 1971, just above half of the population of the settlement belonged to the Slovene speaking community, while the rest were mostly Italian speakers.

[3] In the last three decades, immigration from the city of Trieste and other predominantly Italian-speaking areas have most probably reduced the Slovene speakers to a minority.

The railway station Villa Opicina serves trains entering Italy from Slovenia, but does not provide a direct service to Trieste.