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Italy

 Flag of Italy

Last reviewed: 09 January 2012

Country information

Map of Italy

Area: 301,318 sq km
Population: 60.6 m (ISTAT)
Capital City: Rome (population: 2.72m) (ISTAT)
People: Mostly Italian, with small populations of German, French and Slovene Italians in the north, and Albanian-Italians and Greek-Italians in the south. Around 4m (ISTAT) legal immigrant foreigners and up to 1m illegal immigrants. The largest immigrant populations are from Romania, Albania and Morocco.
Life expectancy: Men (78.3), Women (84) (UN)
Language(s): Italian. However, German is the predominant language in the South Tyrol (Trentino-Alto Adige); French is predominant in the Valle d'Aosta region on the Swiss/French border and Slovene on the Slovene border.
Religion(s): 83% Roman Catholic; remainder Jewish and Protestant and a growing Muslim immigrant community, an estimated 1.2 million (Caritas), of which 67,000 are Italian born and immigrants with Italian citizenship.
Currency: euro
Parliament: Italy has a bicameral system composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. Both are directly elected and are of equal authority.
Government: Republic
Head of State: President Giorgio Napolitano (elected May 2006)
The Constitution provides for the election of the Head of State (who is not politically aligned) for a seven-year term by an electoral college, consisting of the two Houses of Parliament and delegates from each region. The President, required by the Constitution to be over 50 years old, can dissolve one or both houses of Parliament after consultation with the Speakers.
Prime Minister: Mario Monti
Membership of main international groups/organisations: Founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in 1949. Founding member of the European Community (precursor of the European Union) in 1957. Member of United Nations and the G8 and G20 (Italy held the Presidency of the G8 in 2009, hosting the Summit in L’Aquila, the city devastated by an earthquake in April 2009).
 

Major Political Parties in Parliament:

Centre-Right 

  • Popolo della Libertà (PdL – People of Liberty): Angelino Alfano 
  • Lega Nord (Northern League): Umberto Bossi

Centre-Left 

  • Partito Democratico (PD - Democratic Party): Pier Luigi Bersani
  • Italia dei Valori (IdV - Italy of Values): Antonio Di Pietro

Third Pole (Centre)

  • Unione di Centro (UDC - Union of the Centre): Pierferdinando Casini
  • Alleanza per l’Italia (ApI – Alliance for Italy): Francesco Rutelli
  • Futuro e Libertà (FLI – Future and Liberty): Gianfranco Fini
  • Movimento per le Autonomie (MpA – Movement for the Autonomies): Raffaele Lombardo 

 

DID YOU KNOW?

It rains more in Rome than in London. The annual rainfall in Rome is 744mm (30 inches), compared to 593mm (24 inches) in London.

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