Demographics of Italy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Italy is largely homogeneous linguistically and religiously but is diverse culturally, economically, and politically. Italy has the fifth-highest population density in Europe — about 196 persons per square kilometre (490 per square mile).
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Population
Population: 58,462,375 (Istat 2005) - 28,419,070 males and 29,683,963 females.
There are around 3 million of immigrants living in Italy (est. Caritas census 2005), making up ca. 5% of the total population. World Alamanac suggests that Italy has 2.3 million immigrants or 4% of the total population.
Families: 21,503,088 (55,920,840 Italians in a familiar status, 2.60 Italians per family)
- Most populated town (residents) Rome (RM) 2,459,776
- Less populated town (residents) Morterone (LC) 33
- Greatest human density (residents per km²) Portici (NA) 13,032.1
- Greatest town territory (km²) Rome (RM) 1,285.30
- Smallest town territory (km²) Fiera di Primiero (TN) 0.15
Metropolitan Areas
- Milan - around 6,500,000 to 7,000,000
- Naples - around 4,200,000
- Rome - around 3,800,000
- Turin - around 1,800,000
- Venetian Agglomeration - around 1,600,000 (Venezia, Padova, Mestre, Treviso)
- Bari - around 1,500,000
- Florence - around 1,300,000
- Palermo - around 1,000,000
- Genoa - around 1,000,000
- Catania - around 800,000
- Bologna - around 600,000
Cities ranked by population
not representing metropolitan areas: from the 2001-10-21 census:
Immigration
Traditionally a country of emigrants, in the last 20 years Italy has become a country of immigration, with about 5% of the population fitting that description.
156,179 foreigners were counted in the 1971 census, (Source: Italian Caritas); according to the last figure (Caritas est. 2005 [1], almost 3 million of immigrants live legally in Italy, while figure for undocumented immigrants vary from 0.8 million to 2 million. Italy is periodically legalizing unauthorized foreigners.
The largest group of foreigners are Moroccans, followed by Albanians.
Net migration rate: 9.6 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Languages
The official and common language is Italian.
Officially recognized minority language groups are:
Group | Population | Native language | Region |
Sardinian | 1 269 000 | Sardinian | Sardinia |
Friulian | 526 000 | Friulian | Friuli-Venezia Giulia |
Tyrolean | 290 000 | German | Trentino-South Tyrol |
Occitan | 178 000 | Occitan | Piedmont, Liguria, Calabria |
Gipsy | 130 000 | Romany | the whole country |
Albanian | 98 000 | Albanian | southern Italy, Sicily |
Franco-Provençal | 90 000 | Franco-Provençal | Piedmont, Aosta Valley, Apulia |
Slovenian | 70 000 | Slovenian | Friuli-Venezia Giulia |
Ladin | 55 000 | Ladin | Trentino-South Tyrol, Veneto |
French | 20 000 | French | Aosta Valley |
Greek | 20 000 | Griko (Greek) | Calabria, Apulia |
Catalan | 18 000 | Alguerese (Catalan) | Sardinia |
Croatian | 2 600 | Croatian | Molise |
Carinthian | 2 000 | German | Friuli-Venezia Giulia |
Carnian | 1 400 | Friulian | Veneto |
Source: Ministero degli Interni del Governo Italiano.
Official status:
- German is official in South Tyrol, where in 1991 there were 287,503 German and 116,914 Italian speaking people.
- Standard French is official only in the Valle d'Aosta, but the spoken dialects of this region and of some northern valleys of Piedmont are precisely French-Provencal, which reveals some differences from pure French).
Religion
Although Roman Catholicism is the majority religion — 85% of native-born citizens are nominally Catholic — there are mature Protestant and Jewish communities and a growing Muslim (see: Islam in Italy) immigrant community. All religious faiths are provided equal freedom before the law by the constitution.
Other statistical indicators
From the Istat "Demography in figures" 2005, http://www.demo.istat.it/index_e.html
Population estimate: 58,462,375 (Istat 2005)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 14,3% (male 4,181,946; female 3,935,565)
15-64 years: 66.9% (male 19,590,497; female 19,256,747)
65 years and over: 18,9% (male 4,608,479; female 6,484,243)
Median age:
total: 41.4 years
male: 39.8 years
female: 43 years (2004 est.)
Birth rate: 9.7 births/1,000 population (Istat 2005)
Death rate: 9.4 deaths/1,000 population (Istat 2005)
Net migration rate: 9.6 migrant(s)/1,000 population (Istat 2005) Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female
total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2004 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
total: 6.07 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 6.68 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 5.41 deaths/1,000 live births (2004 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 80.75 years
male: 77.8 years
female: 83.7 years (Istat 2005)
Total fertility rate: 1.33 children born/woman (Istat 2005)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.4% (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 100,000 (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths: less than 1,000 (2003 est.)
Nationality:
noun: Italian(s)
adjective: Italian
Ethnic groups: Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and Slovenian-Italians in the north and Albanian-Italians and Greek-Italians in the south)
(96.0% Italian, 0.9% Arab North African, 0.8% Italo-Albanian, 0.8% German, 1.5% French, other)
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 98.6%
male: 99%
female: 98.3% (2003 est.)