Debt Credit Facility Additional Information (Details) (USD $)		9 Months Ended				9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2013	Sep. 30, 2013 Secured Debt [Member]	Aug. 05, 2011	Sep. 30, 2013 Multicurrency revolving line of credit	Dec. 31, 2012 Multicurrency revolving line of credit	Sep. 30, 2013 Minimum [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 Maximum [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 Alternate base rate (1) [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 Alternate base rate (2) [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 Alternate base rate (3) [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 LIBOR interest rate [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 Multicurrency revolving line of credit	Sep. 30, 2012 Multicurrency revolving line of credit	Sep. 30, 2013 Scheduled Quarterly Repayments September 2013 through June 2014 [Domain]	Sep. 30, 2013 Scheduled Quarterly Repayments September 2014 through June 2016 [Domain]
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt Instrument, Face Amount			$ 300,000,000
Line of credit facility, maximum borrowing capacity	660,000,000
Line of Credit Facility, Unused Capacity, Commitment Fee Percentage						0.20%	0.40%
Debt Instrument, Collateral		All obligations under the credit facility are guaranteed by Itron, Inc. and material U.S. domestic subsidiaries and are secured by a pledge of substantially all of the assets of Itron, Inc. and material U.S. domestic subsidiaries, including a pledge of 100% of the capital stock of material U.S. domestic subsidiaries and up to 66% of the voting stock (100% of the non-voting stock) of their first-tier foreign subsidiaries. In addition, the obligations of any foreign subsidiary who is a foreign borrower, as defined by the credit facility, are guaranteed by the foreign subsidiary and by its direct and indirect foreign parents.
Repayments of Secured Debt														5,600,000	7,500,000
Debt Instrument, Description of Variable Rate Basis								the prime rate	the Federal Reserve effective rate	one month LIBOR	the LIBOR rate
Debt Instrument, Basis Spread on Variable Rate									0.50%	1.00%	1.50%
Applicable Interest Rate											1.68%
Proceeds from Lines of Credit												35,000,000	70,000,000
Line of credit facility, amount outstanding				135,000,000	140,000,000
Letters of Credit Outstanding, Amount				50,100,000
Line of credit facility, remaining borrowing capacity				$ 474,900,000