 National name: Repubblica Italiana
President: Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (1999)
Prime Minister: Silvio Berlusconi (2001)
Area: 116,305 sq mi (301,230 sq km)
Monetary units: Euro (formerly lira)
Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Rome, 3,550,900 (metro. area), 2,455,600 (city proper)
Other large cities:
- Milan, 1,180,700;
- Naples, 991,700;
- Turin, 856,000;
- Palermo, 651,500;
- Genoa, 602,500;
- Bologna, 369,300;
- Florence, 351,600;
- Bari, 311,900;
- Catania, 305,900;
- Venice, 265,700
| Population (2005 est.): 58,103,033
- growth rate: 0.1%);
- birth rate: 8.9/1000;
- infant mortality rate: 5.9/1000;
- life expectancy: 79.7;
- density per sq mi: 500 |
Ethnicity/race: Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and Slovene-Italians in the north and Albanian- and Greek-Italians in the south)
Languages:
- Italian (official);
- German,
- French,
- Slovene-speaking minorities | Religions:
- Roman Catholic (predominant),
- Protestant,
- Jewish,
- Islamic |
Literacy rate: 99% (2003 est.)
Economic summary:
- GDP/PPP (2004 est.): $1.609 trillion; per capita $27,700.
- Real growth rate: 1.3%.
- Inflation: 2.3%.
- Unemployment: 8.6%.
- Arable land: 28%.
- Agriculture: fruits, vegetables, grapes, potatoes, sugar beets, soybeans, grain, olives; beef, dairy products; fish.
- Labor force: 24.27 million; services 63%, industry 32%, agriculture 5% (2001).
- Industries: tourism, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, food processing, textiles, motor vehicles, clothing, footwear, ceramics.
- Natural resources: mercury, potash, marble, sulfur, natural gas and crude oil reserves, fish, coal, arable land.
- Exports: $278.1 billion (f.o.b., 2003 est.): engineering products, textiles and clothing, production machinery, motor vehicles, transport equipment, chemicals; food, beverages and tobacco; minerals and nonferrous metals.
- Imports: $271.1 billion (f.o.b., 2003 est.): engineering products, chemicals, transport equipment, energy products, minerals and nonferrous metals, textiles and clothing; food, beverages and tobacco.
- Major trading partners: Germany, France, U.S., UK, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium.
Communications:
- Telephones: main lines in use: 25 million (1999); mobile cellular: 20.5 million (1999).
- Radio broadcast stations: AM about 100, FM about 4,600, shortwave 9 (1998).
- Radios: 50.5 million (1997).
- Television broadcast stations: 6,317 (of which only 117 have 2 kW or more of transmitter power) (1997).
- Televisions: 30.3 million (1997).
- Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 93 (Italy and Holy See) (2000).
 - Internet users: 19.25 million (2001).
Transportation:
- Railways: total: 19,493 km (2002).
- Highways: total: 479,688 km; paved: 479,688 km (including 6,621 km of expressways); unpaved: 0 km (1999).
- Waterways: 2,400 km for various types of commercial traffic, although of limited overall value.
- Ports and harbors: Augusta (Sicily), Bagnoli, Bari, Brindisi, Gela, Genoa, La Spezia, Livorno, Milazzo, Naples, Porto Foxi, Porto Torres (Sardinia), Salerno, Savona, Taranto, Trieste, Venice.
- Airports: 134 (2002).
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