Country Sheet : Italy

Information file

Last Update on July 2nd 2024

ITALY

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In English - version of July 2nd 2024

Geography

Area : 301,340 km²

Borders : 1,899.2 km: Austria 430 km, France 488 km, Holy See (Vatican City) 3.2 km, San Marino 39 km, Slovenia 199 km, Switzerland 740 km

Coastline : 7,600 km

Capital : Rome

Official language : Italian

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Population

Population : 58,997,201 inhabitants (2023)

Crude natural change rate : -5.4‰ (2022)

Population repartition: 12.4% under 15 years old, 24% over 65 years old (2023)

Foreign residents: 2% EU nationals, 6% non-EU nationals (2021)

Crude net migration rate: 3.2‰ (2023 est.)

First time asylum applicants: 135,820 (2023)

Life expectancy: men 81.7 years, women 85.8 years (2023)

Religions: Christian 80.8% (overwhelmingly Roman Catholic with very small groups of Jehovah's Witnesses and Protestants), Muslim 4.9%, unaffiliated 13.4%, other 0.9% (2020 est.)

Ethnic groups: Italian, small clusters of German, French, and Slovenian in the north and Albanian and Greek in the south

Source : Eurostat, CIA World fact Book

Economy

Currency: Euro

GDP: € 2,085,375.6 million (2023)

GDP per capita (PPS): € 28,550 (2023)

GDP growth : 0.9% (2023)

Inflation: 0.9% (June 2024)

Public debt: 137.3% of GDP (Q4 2023)

Unemployment: 6.8% (May 2024)

Stock of foreign direct investment from the entire world: 30.7% of GDP (2022)

Budget balance: -5.7% of GDP (Q4 2023)

Source : Eurostat

Political system

Republic, parliamentary democracy

Head of State: Sergio Mattarella, elected on January 31st 2015 for seven years and reelected for a second mandate on January 29th 2022.

President of the Council: Giorgia Meloni (Fratelli d'Italia) since the snap elections of 25 September 2022. She was appointed President of the Council by the President of the Republic on October 21st 2022 and has formed a right-wing government.

Bicameral parliamentary regime The Camera dei deputati (Chamber of Deputies) is composed of 400 deputies, elected for five years by direct universal suffrage. The Senato della Repubblica (Senate) comprises 200 members who are elected for five years by direct universal suffrage plus senators elected for life (currently 6).