Demography of Italy
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Italy has the fifth-highest population density in Europe — about 196 persons per square kilometer (490 per square mile).
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[edit] Population
Population: 59,131,287 (December 2006 est.) [1]
There are around 3 million immigrants living in Italy (ISTAT 2006 estimate), making up 5% of the total population. Caritas suggest 3.7 million migrants live in Italy.
Families: 23,907,410 (58,802,902 Italians in a familiar status, 2.5 Italians per family)
- Most populated commune (residents) Rome
- Least populated commune (residents) Morterone (LC) 33
- Greatest human density (residents per km²) Portici (NA) 13,032.1
- Greatest commune territory (km²) Rome (RM) 1,285.30
- Smallest commune territory (km²) Fiera di Primiero (TN) 0.15
[edit] Metropolitan areas
According to the OECD [2]., these are the major Italian metropolitan areas:
[edit] Cities ranked by population
not representing metropolitan areas: from the December 2004 Istat report (www.istat.it):
[edit] Immigration
Traditionally a country of emigrants, in the last 20 years Italy has become a country of immigration, with about 4.9% 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. 2006 [3]), 3.7 million immigrants live legally in Italy, while estimates for undocumented immigrants vary from 0.8 million to 2 million. Italy is periodically legalizing unauthorized foreigners.
According to ISTAT figures, there were 2,402,157 foreign citizens resident in Italy at the end of 2004. Of these a little over a half were citizens of Albania (13.2%), Morocco (12.3%), Romania (10.4%), People's Republic of China (4.7%), Ukraine (3.9%), Philippines (3.4%), Tunisia (3.3%), Pakistan (2.6%) or Republic of Macedonia (2.4%). [4]
Many illegal immigrants from Africa and Eastern Europe work as day laborers in the agriculture of Southern Italy, especially in the citrus and olive groves of Calabria and the tomato factories of Puglia. African immigrants typically pay smugglers in Libya for a transit to the Italian island of Lampedusa. From there they are transferred to detention camps in mainland Italy and eventually released; their deportion orders are not enforced. Working conditions are poor, and in 2006 Médecins sans Frontières opened free clinics for undocumented migrants in Calabria.[1]
Emigrants by ethnicity in 2006:
| Group | % |
|---|---|
| Romanians | 15,1% |
| Moroccans | 10,5% |
| Albanians | 10,3% |
| Ukrainians | 5,3% |
Source: Corriere della Sera, http://www.corriere.it/english/articoli/2007/10_Ottobre/30/migrants.shtml.
[edit] Languages
The official and common language is Italian.
Officially recognized minority language groups are:
| Group | Population | Native language | Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| Venetian | ?4,000,000 | Venetian | Veneto |
| Sardinian | 1,269,000 | Sardinian | Sardinia |
| Friulian | 526,000 | Friulian | Friuli-Venezia Giulia |
| Albanian | 348,813[2] | Albanian | southern Italy, Sicily |
| Tyrolean | 290,000 | German | Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol |
| Occitan | 178,000 | Occitan | Piedmont, Liguria, Calabria |
| Roma/Sinti | 130,000 | Romany | the whole country |
| Sard.Sassarese | 125,000 | Sassarese | North-west Sardinia |
| Corsican | 100,000 | Gallurese | North-east Sardinia |
| Franco-Provençal | 90,000 | Franco-Provençal | Piedmont, Aosta Valley, Apulia |
| Slovenian | 80,000 | Slovenian | Friuli-Venezia Giulia |
| Ladin | 55,000 | Ladin | Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, 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 | Friuli-Venezia Giulia |
Source: Ministero degli Interni del Governo Italiano.
Official status:
- German is co-official in the province of Bolzano-Bozen, where in 1991 there were 287,503 German and 116,914 Italian speaking people.
- Standard French is co-official in the Aosta Valley, but the spoken dialects of this region, and of some northern valleys of Piedmont, are more precisely Franco-Provençal, which boasts some differences from standard French.
[edit] Religion
Roman Catholicism is by far the largest religion in the country. Although the Catholic Church has never been the state religion, it still plays a role in the nation's political affairs, partly due to the Holy See's location in Rome. 87.8% of Italians identified as Roman Catholic [5], although only about one-third of these described themselves as active members (36.8%).
Other Christian groups in Italy include more than 700,000 Eastern Orthodox Christians (1.2%) [6], including 470,000 newcomers [7]PDF (65.4 KiB) and some 180,000 Greek Orthodox, 550,000 Pentecostals and Evangelicals (0.8%), of which 400,000 members of the Assemblies of God, 235,685 Jehovah's Witnesses (0.04%)[citations needed], 30,000 Waldensians [8], 25,000 Seventh-day Adventists, 22,000 Mormons, 15,000 Baptists (plus some 5,000 Free Baptists), 7,000 Lutherans, 5,000 Methodists (affiliated to the Waldensian Church) [9].
The country's oldest religious minority is the Jewish community, comprising roughly 45,000 people. It is no longer the largest non-Christian group. As a result of significant immigration from other parts of the world, some 825,000 Muslims [10] (1.4%) live in Italy, though only 50,000 are Italian citizens. In addition, there are 110,000 Buddhists (0.2%) [11] [12] [13]PDF (65.4 KiB), 30,000 Sikhs [14], and 29,000 Hindus (0.1%) in Italy.
- See also: Christianity in Italy, Islam in Italy, Jews in Italy, Buddhism in Italy, and List of Italian religious minority politicians
[edit] Other statistical indicators
From the Istat "Demography in figures" 2006, http://www.demo.istat.it/bil2006/index_e.html
Population estimate: 58,751,711 (Istat 2006) Population estimate: 59,131,287 (Istat 2007)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 14.07% (male 4,278,614; female 4,043,286) (2007)
15-64 years: 66.5% (male 19,519,205; female 19,497,430) (2007)
65 years and over: 19.94% (male 4,920,622; female 6,872,130) (2007)
Median age:
total: 42.2 years
male: 40.7 years
female: 43.7 years (2004 est.)
Birth rate: 9.53 births/1,000 population (Istat 2006)
Death rate: 9.49 deaths/1,000 population (Istat 2006)
Net migration rate: 2.06 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: 0.72 male(s)/female
total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2004 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
total: 5.83 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 6.42 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 5.19 deaths/1,000 live births (2004 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 79.81 years
male: 76.88 years
female: 82.94 years (Istat 2005)
Total fertility rate: 1.40 children born/woman (Istat 2007)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.5% (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 140,000 (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths: less than 1,000 (2003 est.)
Nationality:
noun: Italian(s)
adjective: Italian
Ethnic groups:[15] Italian: 95%, other European (mostly Albanian, Romanian, Ukrainian and others) 2.5%, African (mostly North African Arab) 1.5%, others 1%
Religious groups: Roman Catholic: 87%, other Christians: 3%, Muslim: 1.5%
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 98.6%
male: 99%
female: 98.3% (2003 est.)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Bitter harvest, The Guardian, 19 December 2006
- ^ istat.it - see page 6
[edit] External links
- Demographic page (English)
