Demographics of Italy

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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).

Contents

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

Cities ranked by population

not representing metropolitan areas: from the 2001-10-21 census:

Name Population Region
Rome 2 546 804 Lazio
Milan 1 256 211 Lombardy
Naples 1 004 500 Campania
Turin 865 263 Piedmont
Palermo 686 722 Sicilia
Genoa 610 307 Liguria
Bologna 371 217 Emilia-Romagna
Florence 356 118 Tuscany
Bari 316 532 Puglia
Catania 313 110 Sicily
Venice 271 073 Veneto
Verona 253 208 Veneto
Messina 252 026 Sicilia
Trieste 211 184 Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Padua 204 870 Veneto
Taranto 202 033 Puglia
Brescia 187 567 Lombardy
Reggio di Calabria 180 353 Calabria
Modena 175 502 Emilia-Romagna
Prato 172 499 Tuscany
Cagliari 164 249 Sardegna
Parma 163 457 Emilia-Romagna
Livorno 156 274 Toscana
Foggia 155 203 Puglia
Perugia 149 125 Umbria
Reggio nell'Emilia 141 877 Emilia-Romagna
Salerno 138 188 Campania
Ravenna 134 631 Emilia-Romagna
Ferrara 130 992 Emilia-Romagna
Rimini 128 656 Emilia-Romagna
Syracuse 123 657 Sicily
Sassari 120 729 Sardegna
Monza 120 204 Lombardy
Pescara 116 286 Abruzzo
Bergamo 113 143 Lombardy
Forlì 108 335 Emilia-Romagna
Latina 107 898 Lazio
Vicenza 107 223 Veneto
Terni 105 018 Umbria
Trento 104 946 Trentino-South Tyrol
Novara 100 910 Piedmont
Ancona 100 507 Marche

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.)

See also

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