ITALY is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia.

Italy shares its northern Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within the Italian Peninsula, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian enclave in Switzerland.

Italy has been the home of many European cultures, such as the Etruscans and the Romans, and later was the birthplace of the universities and of the movement of the Renaissance, that began in Tuscany and spread all over Europe. 

Italy's capital Rome was for centuries the center of Western civilization; it also spawned the Baroque movement and seats the Catholic Church. Italy possessed a colonial empire from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.

BASIC FACTS

Official name 

Italian Republic

Capital 

Rome

Area 

301,323 sq km
116,341 sq mi

Largest cities (population)

Rome 2,705,603 (2007 estimate)
Milan 1,303,437 (2007 estimate)
Naples 975,139 (2007 estimate)
Turin 900,569 (2007 estimate)
Palermo 666,552 (2007 estimate)
Genoa 615,686 (2007 estimate)
Bologna 373,026 (2007 estimate)
Florence 365,966 (2007 estimate)
Bari 325,052 (2007 estimate)
Catania 301,564 (2007 estimate)
Venice 268,934 (2007 estimate)

Population 

58,145,321 (2008 estimate)

Population growth rate 

-0.02 per cent (2008 estimate)

Population density 

198 persons per sq km (2008 estimate)
512 persons per sq mi (2008 estimate)

Urbanisation

Per cent urban 68 per cent (2005 estimate)
Per cent rural 32 per cent (2005 estimate)

Life expectancy

Total 80.1 years (2008 estimate)
Female 83.2 years (2008 estimate)
Male 77.1 years (2008 estimate)

Infant mortality rate

6 deaths per 1,000 live births (2008 estimate)

Literacy rate

Total 98.8 per cent (2005 estimate)
Female 98.4 per cent (2005 estimate)
Male 99.1 per cent (2005 estimate)

Ethnic divisions

Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and Slovenian-Italians in the north and Albanian-Italians and Greek-Italians in the south), Sicilian, Sardinian

Languages

Italian (official), French, German, Slovenian, Ladin, Emiliano-Romagnolo, Friulian, Ligurian, Lombard, Napoletano-Calabrese, Piemontese, Provençal, Sardinian, Sicilian, Venetian, and other regional languages.

Religions

Roman Catholic 98 per cent
Other or none 2 per cent

Type of government 

Republic

Independence 

March 17, 1861 (Kingdom of Italy proclaimed)

Constitution 

January 1, 1948; amended in 1993

Voting rights 

Universal at age 18 (except in senatorial elections, where minimum age is 25)

Economy

Gross domestic product (GDP) (US$)1,850,961 million (2006)
GDP per capita (US$) 31,456 (2006)
GDP by economic sector
GDP, agriculture 2.1 per cent (2006)
GDP, industry 26.6 per cent (2006)
GDP, services 71.4 per cent (2006)

National budget (US$)

Total revenue 688,525 million (2006)
Total expenditure 755,738 million (2006)

Monetary unit

1 euro (EUR), consisting of 100 cents

Euro (€) notes and coins replaced the lira (Lit) as the national currency on January 1, 2002.

Exports

Metals, textiles and clothing, production machinery, motor vehicles, transport equipment, chemicals, electrical and precision machinery

Imports

Industrial machinery, chemicals, transport equipment, petroleum, metals, textiles, food, agricultural products

Major trading partners for exports

Germany, France, United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Switzerland

Major trading partners for imports

Germany, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, United States

Industries

Machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, tourism, food processing, textiles, motor vehicles, clothing, footwear, ceramics

Agriculture

Principal crops: fruits, vegetables, grapes, potatoes, sugar beet, soya beans, grains, olives

Natural resources

Mercury, potash, marble, sulphur, natural gas and crude oil, fish, coal, lead, zinc, barytes, fluorspar

Croatia - Montenegro - Albania - Greece - Turkey - Cyprus - Israel
Egypt - Libya - Algeria - Tunisia - Morocco - Spain - France - Italy - Malta