ACOG - Italy  - IBM

Geography

Location: Southern Europe, a peninsula extending into the central Mediterranean Sea, northeast of Tunisia

Area:
total area: 301,230 sq km
land area: 294,020 sq km
comparative area: slightly larger than Arizona

Land boundaries: total 1,899.2 km, Austria 430 km, France 488 km, Holy See (VaticanCity) 3.2 km, San Marino 39 km, Slovenia 199 km, Switzerland 740 km

Coastline: 4,996 km


People

Population: 58,261,971 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 15% (female 4,352,325; male 4,603,083)
15-64 years: 68% (female 19,969,086; male 19,874,528)
65 years and over: 17% (female 5,630,747; male 3,832,202)

Population growth rate: 0.21% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 10.89 births/1,000 population

Death rate: 9.78 deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate: 1.03 migrant(s)/1,000 population

Infant mortality rate: 7.4 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 77.85 years
male: 74.67 years
female: 81.23 years

Total fertility rate: 1.41 children born/woman

Ethnic divisions: Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and Slovene-Italians in the north and Albanian-Italians and Greek-Italians in the south), Sicilians,Sardinians

Religions: Roman Catholic 98%, other 2%

Languages: Italian, German (parts of Trentino-Alto Adige region are predominantly German speaking), French (small French-speaking minority in Valle d'Aosta region), Slovene (Slovene-speaking minority in the Trieste-Gorizia area)

Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1990 est.)
total population: 97%
male: 98%
female: 96%


Government

Names:
conventional long form: Italian Republic
conventional short form: Italy

Type: republic

Capital: Rome

Independence: 17 March 1861 (Kingdom of Italy proclaimed)

Constitution: 1 January 1948


Economy

National product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $998.9 billion

National product real growth rate: 2.2%

National product per capita: $17,180

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 3.9%

Unemployment rate: 12.2%

Electricity:
capacity: 61,630,000 kW
production: 209 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 4,033 kWh



Olympic Factoid
The volunteer staff of the 1996 Olympic Games totaled 50,152. They worked an estimated 850,000 shifts.