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Italian Republic

Repubblica Italiana  (Italian)
Flag of Italy
Location of  Italy  (dark green)

– on the European continent  (light green & dark grey)

and largest city
Official languagesItalian
GovernmentUnitary constitutional
parliamentary republic
• President
Sergio Mattarella
Mario Draghi
Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati di Rovigo
Roberto Fico
Senate of the Republic
Chamber of Deputies
17 March 1861
• Republic
2 June 1946
• Founded the EEC (now the European Union)
1 January 1958
• Total
301,338 km2 (116,347 sq mi) (71st)
• Water (%)
• 31.12.2016 estimate
60,589,445 Increase[2] (23rd)
• Density
201.3/km2 (521.4/sq mi) (63rd)
GDP (PPP)2016 estimate
• Total
$2.234 trillion[3] (12th)
• Per capita
$36,833[3] (32nd)
GDP (nominal)2016 estimate
• Total
$1.850 trillion[3] (8th)
• Per capita
$30,507[3] (25th)
Gini (2015)32.4[4]
HDI (2015)Increase 0.887[5]
very high · 26th
CurrencyEuro ()b (EUR)
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)
Date formatdd/mm/yyyy (AD)
Driving sideright
Calling code+39c
ISO 3166 codeIT
Internet TLD.itd

Italy (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]) is a country in south Europe and a member of the European Union. Its official name is Repubblica Italiana. The Italian flag is green, white and red. Italy is a democratic republic and is a founding member of the European Union.[7] Its President is Sergio Mattarella and its Prime Minister is Mario Draghi. Italy is also a member of the G8, as it has the eighth largest Gross Domestic Product in the world.

Before 1861, it was made up of smaller kingdoms and city-states. Italy still has city-states like the Vatican City and San Marino that are countries. The country has become famous for its wine, as well as its food. Some foods are different between regions. Famous dishes from Italy are Spaghetti, Pizza, Lasagna and Risotto, Olives are much used in wines.

The country's capital, Rome, is one of the most famous cities in the world, as it was the capital of the Roman Empire.Milan is the financial and economic capital of Italy. Other famous cities in Italy include, Venice, Florence, Genoa, Turin, Naples, and Palermo.


Satellite image of Italy


The capital of Italy is Rome where the Roman Empire started. Other cities in Italy are Milan, Turin, Florence, Venice, Genoa, Naples and Palermo. The country has a number of islands, the biggest of which are Sicily and Sardinia,[10][11] which can be reached by ship or aircraft.




People and culture

People from Italy are called Italians. Even if an Italian were to leave Italy, it is possible that their descendants could also claim Italian citizenship due to Italian nationality law relying mostly on ius sanguinis or "right of blood" in Latin.[16] Nearly all the Italians are Christians, and most of these are Roman Catholics, which is based in the Vatican City and home to its leader, the Pope.[17] Leonardo da Vinci is a famous artist, he is the creator of the Mona Lisa which is now in the louvre Paris.

The population of Italy is a little over 60 million.[18] About 2.7 million of them live in Rome,[19] and 1.3 million in Milan.[20] As of 31 December 2015, over 5 million foreigners were living in Italy, which is 8.3% of the total population.[21]

The official language of Italy is Italian and in some small areas German, Slovenian or French. People also speak dialects of Italian such as Sicilian and Sardinian. There are many different dialects spoken in Italy. They vary between regions and, in some cases, also between provinces.

Italy is home to more World Heritage Sites than any other nation in the world.[22] These sites are culturally important and valued according to UNESCO. About 60% of the works of art of the world are in Italy. Italy is also a big wine producer. In 2005 it made over 5 million tonnes.[23]


Italy has a modern social welfare system. The labor market enjoys relative strength, with many foreigners, especially from Romania, working in Italy where the wages are much higher. But it could have been much more workers on the labor market because men and women already retired in the age of 57 and the unemployment rate is relatively high at 8.2 percent.[24][25] Italy's modern society has been built up through loans and now the country has a catastrophic high debt of €1.9trn or 120 percent of the country's total GDP. And the government cannot pay back the loans during the time period the EU wish.[26]


Italy religiosity
Religion percent
No religion

Most people in Italy are Roman Catholics, but the Catholic Church is no longer officially the state religion. 87.8% of the people said they were Roman Catholic.[27] Only about a third said they were active members (36.8%). There are also other Christian groups in Italy, more than 700,000 Eastern Orthodox Christians. 180,000 of them belong to the Greek Orthodox Church.[28]

550,000 are Pentecostals and Evangelicals (0.8%). 235,685 Jehovah's Witnesses (0.4%),[29] 30,000 Waldensians,[30] 25,000 Seventh-day Adventists, 22,000 Mormons, 20,000 Baptists, 7,000 Lutherans, 4,000 Methodists.[31] The country's oldest religious minority is the Jewish community. It has roughly 45,000 people. It is no longer the largest non-Christian group.

About 825,000 Muslims live in Italy. Most of them immigrated.[32] (1.4% of the total population) Only 50,000 are Italian citizens. In addition, there are 50,000 Buddhists[33][34] 70,000 Sikh[35] and 70,000 Hindus in Italy.



Major cities




Region Capital Area (km²) Population




Italy was one of the first members of the European Union and in 2002 along with 11 other European countries, it changed to using the euro as its official currency. Before this, the Italian lira had been used since 1861.




The capital of Italy was Rome with ancient times. Rome founded in 753 BC was a separate state well-known as Roman Kingdom firstly, Roman Republic and Roman Empire later. (expand)

Therefore, before 1861, Italy was not a state. The area was made of a group of separate states, ruled by other countries (such as Austria, France, and Spain). In the 1850s the Earl of Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour was the Head of Government of the "State of Sardinia". He talked to the Austrians in Lombardy and Veneto and said they should create a Northern Italian state. This happened, but other Central and Southern Italian states also joined Piedmont to create a bigger state.

In 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi took control of Sicily, creating the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.[11] Victor Emmanuel II was made the king. But in 1861, Latium and Veneto were still not part of Italy, because they were ruled by the Pope and Austrian Empire.



In 1922, a new Italian government started. It was ruled by Benito Mussolini, the leader of Fascism in Italy. He became Head of Government and dictator, calling himself "duce" - which means "leader" in Italian. He became friends with German dictator Adolf Hitler. Germany, Japan, and Italy became the Axis Powers and entered World War II together in 1940 against France, Great Britain, and later the Soviet Union. During the war, Italy controlled most of the Mediterranean Sea.

On July 25, 1943, Mussolini was removed by the Great Council of Fascism, and, on September 8, 1943, Badoglio said that the war as an ally of Germany was ended. Italy started fighting as an ally of France and the UK, but Italian soldiers did not know whom to shoot. In Northern Italy, a movement called Resistenza started to fight against the German invaders.


In February 1947, Italy signed a peace treaty with the Allies losing all the colonies and some territorial areas: (Istria and parts of Dalmatia).



The railway network in Italy totals 16,627 kilometres (10,332 mi), the 17th longest in the world. High speed trains include ETR-class trains which travel at 300 km/h (190 mph).

Related pages


  1. "The Global Religious Landscape" (PDF). Pewforum.org. http://www.pewforum.org/files/2014/01/global-religion-full.pdf. 
  2. "National demographic estimate, December 2016". ISTAT. http://demo.istat.it/bil2016/index.html. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "World Economic Outlook Database, April 2016 – Italy". International Monetary Fund. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2016/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2016&ey=2021&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&pr1.x=77&pr1.y=12&c=136&s=NGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPGDP%2CPPPPC&grp=0&a=. 
  4. "Gini coefficient of equivalsed disposable income (source: SILC)". Luxembourg: Eurostat. 15 June 2017. http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=ilc_di12. 
  5. "2016 Human Development Report". United Nations Development Programme. 2016. http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2016_human_development_report.pdf. 
  6. "Comune di Campione d'Italia". Comune.campione-d-italia.co.it. 14 July 2010. http://www.comune.campione-d-italia.co.it/. 
  7. "European Countries". European Union. http://europa.eu/abc/european_countries/eu_members/italy/index_en.htm. 
  8. "Alps are the border between Italy and other countries". http://www.blurtit.com/q714533.html. 
  9. "Four missing in Alps avalanche". BBC News. 20 April 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1940971.stm. 
  10. "Biggest Islands in the World". http://www.worldislandinfo.com/LARGESTV1.html. 
  11. 11.0 11.1 "Italy: Encarta". MSN. http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555207/italy.html. 
  12. Zwingle, Eria. "National Geographic". National Geographic. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0205/feature6/index.html. 
  13. Watson, Philip (19 March 2005). "The lake show". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2005/mar/19/italy.guardiansaturdaytravelsection. 
  14. "Tourism damaging Med's wetlands". BBC News. 15 July 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3896487.stm. 
  15. "Alarm sounded over Italy's treasures". BBC News. 20 November 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2496923.stm. 
  16. "Citizenship by descent" (in en-gb). https://conssanfrancisco.esteri.it/consolato_sanfrancisco/en/i_servizi/per_i_cittadini/cittadinanza/citizenship-by-descent.html. 
  17. "Italy". Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/it.html. 
  18. "Flag Counter: Italy". http://flagcounter.com/factbook/it. 
  19. "Rome's Population". http://www.routard.com/guide/rome/1823/carte_d_identite.htm. 
  20. "Milan's Population". http://www.aboutmilan.com/the-city-of-milan.html. 
  21. "National demographic balance, 2015". www.istat.it. Italian Government. 16 June 2016. http://www.istat.it/en/archive/186990. 
  22. "List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites". UNESCO. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/. 
  23. "Countries by wine Production". http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Wine_production_by_country. 
  24. "Archived copy". http://www.pensionfundsonline.co.uk/113/country-profiles/italy/. 
  25. "Report for Selected Countries and Subjects". https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2011/02/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2009&ey=2016&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=136&s=LUR&grp=0&a=&pr.x=16&pr.y=16. 
  26. "Rome burns its Euroland bridges". 8 November 2011. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2058965/Italy-debt-crisis-Rome-burns-Euroland-bridges.html. 
  27. (in Italian) Italy: 88% of Italians declare themselves Catholic. Corriere della Sera. 2006-01-18. http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2006/01_Gennaio/17/cattolici.shtml. Retrieved 2009-05-10. 
  28. "The Holy Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Malta". http://www.ortodossia.it/The%20Holy%20Orthodox%20Archdiocese%20of%20Italy%20ed%20Malta.htm. 
  29. (in Italian) Center for Studies on New Religions Archived 2011-06-06 at the Wayback Machine
  30. (in Italian) Waldensian Evangelical Church Archived 2012-07-24 at Archive.today
  31. "World Council of Churches". http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/regions/europe/italy/evangelical-methodist-church-in-italy.html. 
  32. "UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office". http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-the-fco/country-profiles/europe/italy. 
  33. (in Italian) Italian Buddhist Union Archived 2018-12-25 at the Wayback Machine
  34. (in Italian) Italian Buddhist Institute "Soka Gakkai" Archived 2008-02-19 at the Wayback Machine
  35. "Etnomedia". http://www.etnomedia.org/14.htm. 

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