Italy
Name
| Official name | Italian Republic — Repubblica Italiana |
|---|---|
| Former names | The Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946); before it the Papal States, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Austrian Lombardy–Venetia and the duchies; the Roman Republic and Empire |
| Demonym | Italian |
| Meaning of the name | Italia — from the Oscan Víteliú, "the land of calves," the Greeks' name for the toe of the peninsula, spread to the whole by the Romans |
| Motto | None official |
Quick facts
| Capital | Rome — Roma — founded 753 BC by the tradition, the capital of Italy since 1871; about 2.7 million, 4.3 million in the metropolitan city |
|---|---|
| Largest cities | Rome; Milan, about 1.4 million, 3.2 million in its area; Naples; Turin; Palermo; Genoa; Bologna; Florence; Bari; Catania; Venice |
| Official language | Italian — the Tuscan of Dante made the language of the nation; German in South Tyrol, French in the Aosta Valley, Slovene in Trieste and Gorizia, Ladin, Sardinian, Friulian and the dialects of every region |
| Currency | Euro — EUR, €; since 1999, the notes from 2002, replacing the lira at 1,936.27 |
| Time zone | Central European Time, UTC+1; summer time UTC+2 |
| Calling code | +39 |
| Internet domain | .it |
| ISO 3166 codes | IT · ITA · 380 |
| Vehicle registration code | I |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 230 V, 50 Hz; plug types C, F and L — the L the three-in-a-row of Italy |
| Founded | The Kingdom of Italy proclaimed 17 March 1861; the Republic, 2 June 1946; Rome, 753 BC by the legend |
| National days | 2 June, the Festa della Repubblica, with the parade on the Fori Imperiali; 25 April, Liberation Day, for 1945; 17 March, the Day of National Unity, 2011 for the 150th; 1 May; 15 August, Ferragosto; the Epiphany, Easter Monday, All Saints, the Immaculate Conception and Christmas; the patron saints of every city |
| Constitution | 1 January 1948 — the Constitution of the Italian Republic, approved by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947; amended by parliament and, when contested, by referendum — the reforms of 2006 and 2016 rejected, the cut of parliament to 600 approved in 2020, the justice reform rejected 23 March 2026 |
| Population | About 58.9 million (Istat, 2025) — 59.0 million at the census count of 2021; falling since the peak of 60.8 million in 2014; the third in the EU |
| Area | 301,340 km² (116,348 sq mi) — land 294,140 km², water 7,200 km²; Sicily 25,700 km² and Sardinia 24,100 km² the largest islands of the Mediterranean |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | The Tricolore — three vertical bands of green, white and red, the French tricolor with the blue made green, first raised by the Cispadane Republic at Reggio Emilia on 7 January 1797, the flag of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1848 with the Savoy arms and of the Republic without them by Article 12 of the Constitution since 1948.Flag of Italy |
|---|---|
| National emblem | A white five-pointed star with a red border over a steel cogwheel, within an olive branch and an oak branch, tied by a red ribbon bearing Repubblica Italiana — the Stellone d'Italia, the star of the nation, the wheel of labor from Article 1; designed by Paolo Paschetto, adopted 5 May 1948 |
| National anthem | "Il Canto degli Italiani" — "Fratelli d'Italia," the Song of the Italians — words by Goffredo Mameli, 1847, music by Michele Novaro; the provisional anthem from 12 October 1946 and by law since 4 December 2017 |
| National colors | Green, white and red; the azzurro of the Savoy on the national teams |
| National animal | The Italian wolf — the lupo appenninico, the she-wolf of Romulus and Remus; widely cited, protected since 1971 |
| National tree | The strawberry tree — the corbezzolo, Arbutus unedo, with its green leaves, white flowers and red fruit in the flag's colors, the tree of Pascoli's poem; widely cited |
| National flower | None designated — the lily of Florence, the cyclamen and the rose widely cited |
| National dish | Pasta — the largest producer and eater on earth; the Neapolitan pizza, whose art of the pizzaiuolo is on UNESCO's list since 2017, and the Italian cuisine as a whole listed in 2025; the risotto, the gelato, the espresso; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag by Article 12 of the Constitution; the emblem by the decree of 1948; the anthem by the law of 2017; the animal, tree, flower and dishes widely cited, the pizza and the cuisine by UNESCO listing |
Geography
| Location | Southern Europe — the peninsula into the Mediterranean between the Tyrrhenian, the Ionian and the Adriatic seas, with the Alps across the north; France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia the neighbors, and the Vatican and San Marino within |
|---|---|
| Land borders | 1,836 km (1,141 mi) with six states — Switzerland 698, France 476, Austria 404, Slovenia 218, San Marino 37, the Vatican City 3.4 — the two enclaves the only ones in the world entirely inside a single country |
| Coastline | 7,600 km (4,720 mi) |
| Highest point | Mont Blanc — Monte Bianco — 4,809 m (15,777 ft) on the border by the Italian account, with the Italian summit of Mont Blanc de Courmayeur at 4,748 m (15,577 ft) by the CIA World Factbook; Monte Rosa's Dufourspitze on the Swiss border at 4,634 m; the Gran Paradiso the highest wholly Italian, 4,061 m |
| Lowest point | The Mediterranean Sea, 0 m — the reclaimed land of the Po delta and the Jolanda di Savoia at about 3 m below |
| Mean elevation | 538 m (1,765 ft) |
| Volcanoes | Etna in Sicily, about 3,350 m, the tallest active volcano in Europe and among the most active on earth, erupting almost every year; Vesuvius, which buried Pompeii and Herculaneum on 24 August 79 and last erupted in 1944, with 3 million people at its foot; Stromboli, in eruption for 2,000 years; the Campi Flegrei of Naples, the supervolcano that swells and shakes |
| Rivers and lakes | The Po, 652 km, from Monviso across the northern plain to the Adriatic, the country's granary; the Adige of Verona; the Tiber of Rome, 405 km; the Arno of Florence; Lake Garda, 370 km², the largest, with Maggiore and Como the lakes of the north; Trasimeno; the Venetian lagoon |
| Terrain | The Alps across the north; the Po Valley, the great plain; the Apennines down the spine of the peninsula; the coasts of Liguria, Amalfi and the Adriatic; the islands; the hills of Tuscany and the plains of Apulia |
| Climate | Mediterranean on the coasts and the south; continental in the Po Valley with its fogs; alpine in the north; the sirocco of the south and the bora of Trieste |
| Natural hazards | Earthquakes — the most seismic country of western Europe: Messina 1908 with 80,000 dead, Friuli 1976, Irpinia 1980, L'Aquila 2009, Amatrice 2016; the volcanoes; floods and landslides — the Polesine of 1951, Vajont 1963, Emilia-Romagna 2023; the Venice high water; the drought of the Po |
| Natural resources | Marble at Carrara; natural gas of the Adriatic and the Po; the geothermal of Larderello, the first in the world, 1904; the farmland; little else — the country imports most of its energy |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 47%; forest about 31% |
| National parks | 25 — the Gran Paradiso, the first, 1922, of the ibex; Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise, of the bears and wolves; the Stelvio; the Dolomites, a World Heritage site; the Cinque Terre; the Gargano; Aspromonte; the Maddalena and the Asinara archipelagos |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 61 — the most of any country — from the rock drawings of Valcamonica (1979) and the historic center of Rome, Florence, Venice, Pisa, Siena, Naples and Verona, the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, the Dolomites, the Prosecco hills and the Padua frescoes to the Domus de Janas of Sardinia (2025); 55 cultural, 6 natural |
| Administrative divisions | 20 regions — Lombardy, Lazio, Campania, Sicily and the rest — five with special autonomy: Sicily, Sardinia, Trentino-Alto Adige, Aosta Valley and Friuli-Venezia Giulia; 107 provinces and metropolitan cities; 7,896 comuni |
People
| Population | About 58.9 million (Istat, 2025) — falling since 2014 |
|---|---|
| Population density | About 200 per km² (515 per sq mi) — Lombardy above 400, the Aosta Valley 40 |
| Population growth | About −0.3% a year — deaths above births by 300,000 a year, immigration filling half the gap |
| Median age | About 48 years — the oldest in Europe and the second in the world after Japan |
| Life expectancy | About 83 years — among the highest in the world |
| Fertility rate | About 1.2 births per woman — the lowest in the country's history; 370,000 births in 2024, the fewest since unification |
| Urban population | About 72% |
| Adult literacy | About 99% |
| Origin | Italian about 91%; foreign residents about 5.3 million, 9% — Romanians the largest at a million, then Moroccans, Albanians, Chinese, Ukrainians, Bangladeshis and Egyptians; the historic minorities of the Germans of South Tyrol, the Slovenes, the Albanians of the Arbëreshë villages, the Greeks of Salento, the Sardinians |
| Languages | Italian by about 95%; the dialects of the regions — Neapolitan, Sicilian, Venetian, Lombard — spoken by half; German by 300,000 in South Tyrol; French in Aosta; Slovene; Sardinian; Friulian; Ladin; English by about a third |
| Religion | Roman Catholic about 74%, and about 20% practicing — the Church of the Vatican next door and the Lateran Treaty of 1929; no religion about 15%; Muslim about 3%; Orthodox about 2%; Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist |
| Human Development Index | 0.915 (2023 data, 2025 report) — very high; about 30th of 193 |
| The south | The Mezzogiorno — Campania, Apulia, Calabria, Sicily and the rest — with a third of the people and a quarter of the output, unemployment twice the north's and the young leaving; the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno of 1950–84 and the recovery funds of the 2020s; the Mafia, the Camorra and the 'Ndrangheta |
| Sport | Football — the Azzurri, world champions in 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006, European champions in 1968 and 2021, and absent from the World Cups of 2018 and 2022; Serie A; cycling — the Giro since 1909; motor racing — Ferrari and Monza; the Winter Olympics of Cortina 1956, Turin 2006 and Milan–Cortina 2026; Jannik Sinner, the world number one of tennis; the Olympic golds of Tokyo 2020, ten |
| Diaspora | Some 80 million of Italian descent abroad — 30 million in Brazil, 25 million in Argentina, 17 million in the United States, with Australia, Canada, Venezuela, France and Germany; 6 million Italian citizens abroad with the vote; the emigration of 1880–1920 and the new one of the graduates |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary parliamentary republic under the Constitution of 1948 — the president a head of state elected by parliament and the regions for seven years; the prime minister, the President of the Council of Ministers, head of government with the confidence of both chambers; the Constitutional Court |
|---|---|
| Prime Minister | Giorgia Meloni (Brothers of Italy — Fratelli d'Italia), since 22 October 2022 — the first woman in the office, the 31st person; leader of her party since 2014, youth minister under Berlusconi 2008–11, born 15 January 1977 in Rome; her government in September 2026 the longest-lasting since 1946, past Berlusconi's of 2001–05; the chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists |
| President | Sergio Mattarella (independent, Democratic before), since 3 February 2015 — the 12th; a constitutional lawyer and judge of the Constitutional Court, minister under three governments, born 23 July 1941 in Palermo, the brother of the region's president killed by the Mafia in 1980; re-elected 29 January 2022 on the eighth ballot with 759 votes after asking not to be, the second to serve twice after Napolitano; his term to 2029 |
| The government | The coalition of Brothers of Italy, the League of Matteo Salvini and Forza Italia of Antonio Tajani since Berlusconi's death in 2023 — about 237 of the 400 deputies and 115 of the 200 senators; Salvini and Tajani deputy prime ministers, Giancarlo Giorgetti at the economy; the migration decrees and the Albania centers, the "premierato" and the autonomy bills; "this government has primarily sought to survive," in the words of the economist Tito Boeri, and its stability its own argument |
| The 2022 election | Held 25 September 2022 for the reduced chambers: the center-right coalition 43.8% and 237 deputies — Brothers of Italy 26.0%, the League 8.8%, Forza Italia 8.1%; the center-left 26.1% — the Democratic Party 19.1%; the Five Star Movement 15.4%; Action–Italia Viva 7.8%; turnout 63.9%, the lowest ever; the first woman prime minister and the first government led by a party descended from the post-fascist MSI |
| The referendum of 2026 | The constitutional referendum of 22–23 March 2026 on the government's justice reform — the separation of the careers of judges and prosecutors, two Superior Councils drawn by lot and a new disciplinary court, passed by parliament without the two-thirds that would have avoided the vote; rejected, No 53.7% to Yes 46.3% by the interior ministry's final count, on a turnout of about 59%, the highest for a referendum in years; "a lost opportunity to modernize Italy," Meloni said, and stayed, as Renzi had not in 2016; "an alternative majority" shown, said the pollsters; the magistrates' association had fought it as a power grab, Meloni had promised "more autonomous" courts |
| Parliament | The Chamber of Deputies — 400 members since the cut of 2020, elected for five years by the mixed system of the Rosatellum, a third in single seats and two-thirds by list, Lorenzo Fontana its president; the Senate — 200 elected and the senators for life, Ignazio La Russa its president; the constituencies of Italians abroad |
| The next election | The general election due in 2027, by the autumn; the presidential election of 2029 |
| Legal system | Civil law on the Roman and Napoleonic models; the Constitutional Court of fifteen; the Court of Cassation; the Council of State; the magistracy self-governed by the Superior Council, its unity the object of the referendum; the trials among the slowest in Europe |
| Regions | 20 with elected presidents and councils, five with special statutes; the "differentiated autonomy" law of 2024, cut back by the Constitutional Court; the 107 provinces reduced to shells; the mayors of the comuni |
| The Vatican and San Marino | The Holy See in Rome since the Lateran Treaty of 11 February 1929, Pope Leo XIV since 8 May 2025, the first American pope, after Francis died on 21 April 2025; the Republic of San Marino, the oldest republic in the world, within the Marche and Romagna, in customs and currency union |
| Migration | The central Mediterranean route — the arrivals of Lampedusa, 157,000 in 2023 and fewer since; the accord with Tunisia, the centers in Albania of 2024, held up by the courts and repurposed; the naval blockade bill of 2026; the Bossi-Fini law |
| European Union | A founder — the Treaty of Rome signed on the Capitoline on 25 March 1957; the eurozone from 1999; Schengen from 1997; the largest recipient of the recovery fund, €194 billion; the EU Council presidency last in 2014; Mario Draghi and the Commission's reports |
| NATO | A founder, 4 April 1949; the bases of Aviano, Sigonella, Naples and Vicenza; the defense spending toward the 2% and the new targets |
| United Nations | Member since 14 December 1955; the FAO, the WFP and IFAD headquartered in Rome; among the largest contributors to peacekeeping in the West |
| Other memberships | The G7, host in 2024 at Borgo Egnazia; the G20; the OECD; the Council of Europe; the OSCE; the WTO; the Union for the Mediterranean |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$2.4 trillion (2025, IMF) — the eighth-largest economy in the world, the third in the EU |
|---|---|
| GDP per capita | About US$41,000 (2025) |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$60,000 (2025) |
| GDP growth | About 0.5% a year (2024–26), 0.6% forecast for 2026 — the stagnation of a quarter century, real wages flat since the early 1990s; unemployment down to about 5%; inflation about 2% |
| Economy by sector | Services about 74%, industry about 24% — the second manufacturing country of Europe after Germany — agriculture about 2% |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) |
| Made in Italy | Fashion and luxury — Prada, Armani, Gucci, Ferragamo, Dolce & Gabbana, the Milan of the shows; the cars — Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Fiat within Stellantis; the machinery of the districts of the north; Luxottica, the world's eyewear; the food and wine — Barilla, Ferrero, the Parmigiano, the Prosecco |
| The firms | Eni, the oil and gas; Enel, the largest utility in Europe; Leonardo, the defense; Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit; Generali; Pirelli; Prysmian; the family firms of the Mittelstand of the Veneto and Emilia |
| Agriculture | The largest wine producer in the world, about 45 million hectoliters; the second in olive oil; the largest in pasta, tomatoes for processing and rice in Europe; the DOP and IGP marks, 900 of them, the most in the EU |
| Tourism | About 65 million foreign visitors a year, the fourth or fifth most visited country — Rome, Venice, Florence, the Amalfi Coast, the lakes and the Dolomites; the Jubilee of 2025 in Rome; about 13% of GDP with the spending |
| Public finances | Public debt about 137% of GDP, above €3 trillion — the second-highest in the EU after Greece and the largest in absolute terms; the deficit back under 3% in 2025 and the EU's excessive-deficit procedure; the spread over the Bund the barometer of the republic; the recovery fund of €194 billion to 2026 |
| Income classification | High income (World Bank); an OECD founder |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airports | Rome Fiumicino — Leonardo da Vinci — about 50 million passengers; Milan Malpensa; Bergamo; Venice; Naples; Catania; Bologna |
|---|---|
| Airline | ITA Airways, founded 2021 on the ashes of Alitalia, Lufthansa a shareholder since 2025; Ryanair the largest carrier in the country |
| Main ports | Genoa, the largest; Trieste, the port of Central Europe; Gioia Tauro, the container hub of the south; Livorno, La Spezia, Naples, Venice; Civitavecchia for the cruises; the ferries of the Strait of Messina |
| Railways | About 17,000 km (10,600 mi) — Trenitalia and the private Italo; the Frecciarossa high-speed network of about 1,000 km, the Rome–Florence Direttissima of 1977 the first high-speed line in Europe; the metros of Milan, Rome, Naples, Turin and Brescia; the Brenner Base Tunnel and the Turin–Lyon under construction; the Strait of Messina bridge, 3.3 km, approved in 2025 for the 2030s, the longest suspension span ever |
| Roads | About 490,000 km (304,000 mi); the autostrade of about 7,000 km, tolled — the Milan–Laghi of 1924 the first motorway in the world; the Autostrada del Sole from Milan to Naples, 1964; the Morandi Bridge of Genoa that fell on 14 August 2018 with 43 dead, rebuilt by 2020 |
| Venice | The vaporetti and the gondolas; the MOSE barriers of 2020 that hold the sea; the cruise ships banned from the lagoon since 2021; the day-visitor fee since 2024 |
History in dates
| 753 BC | Rome founded, 21 April, by the legend |
|---|---|
| 509 BC | The Roman Republic |
| 27 BC | Augustus — the Empire |
| 79 | Vesuvius buries Pompeii, 24 August |
| 476 | The last western emperor deposed |
| 800 | Charlemagne crowned at Rome, 25 December |
| 1088 | The University of Bologna — the oldest in the world |
| 1300s | Dante; the Renaissance of Florence to follow |
| 1492 | Columbus of Genoa sails |
| 1527 | The Sack of Rome |
| 1797 | The Tricolore at Reggio Emilia, 7 January |
| 1848 | The revolutions; the First War of Independence |
| 1860 | Garibaldi's Thousand land in Sicily, 11 May |
| 1861 | The Kingdom of Italy, 17 March |
| 1870 | Rome taken, 20 September |
| 1915 | Italy enters the Great War, 24 May |
| 1922 | The March on Rome, 28 October — Mussolini |
| 1929 | The Lateran Treaty, 11 February |
| 1940 | War declared, 10 June |
| 1943 | Mussolini falls, 25 July; the armistice, 8 September |
| 1945 | Liberation, 25 April; Mussolini shot, 28 April |
| 1946 | The Republic, 2 June — women vote |
| 1948 | The Constitution, 1 January |
| 1957 | The Treaty of Rome, 25 March |
| 1978 | Aldo Moro kidnapped, 16 March, and killed, 9 May |
| 1992 | Tangentopoli; Falcone killed at Capaci, 23 May |
| 1994 | Berlusconi's first government, 10 May |
| 2002 | The euro |
| 2011 | The debt crisis; Monti |
| 2018 | The Morandi Bridge falls, 14 August |
| 2020 | The first Western lockdown, 9 March |
| 2022 | Giorgia Meloni prime minister, 22 October |
| 2025 | Pope Francis dies, 21 April; Leo XIV, 8 May |
| 2026 | The Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics, 6 February; the referendum, 22–23 March |
Records & firsts
| The most World Heritage sites | 61 |
|---|---|
| The oldest university | Bologna, 1088 |
| The first motorway | Milan to the lakes, 1924 |
| The first high-speed line in Europe | The Direttissima, 1977 |
| The largest wine producer | About 45 million hectoliters |
| The oldest population in Europe | A median age of 48 |
| The only country with two enclaves | The Vatican and San Marino |
| The tallest active volcano in Europe | Etna |
| The first geothermal power | Larderello, 1904 |
| The largest debt in the EU | Above €3 trillion |
| Four World Cups | 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006 |
| The Renaissance | Florence, Rome and Venice |
| The most governments of the republic | About 70 since 1946, and the longest at last |
| The oldest republic in the world | San Marino, inside it, since 301 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Italy?
The Italian Republic — Repubblica Italiana — since the referendum of 2 June 1946 in which Italians chose the republic over the monarchy of the House of Savoy by 54 to 46 percent, with the Constitution in force from 1 January 1948. The Kingdom of Italy had been proclaimed on 17 March 1861 under Victor Emmanuel II after the Risorgimento united the peninsula's states for the first time since Rome. The name is the Romans' Italia, from the Oscan Víteliú, "the land of calves," for the south the Greeks first called by it.
What is the capital of Italy?
Rome — Roma — on the Tiber, founded by the tradition on 21 April 753 BC, the capital of the Roman Republic and Empire, of the popes, and of Italy since it was taken from the papacy on 20 September 1870, four years after Florence had held the title; about 2.7 million people in the city and 4.3 million in its metropolitan area, with the Vatican City, the smallest state on earth, inside it. Milan, the capital of finance, fashion and industry, is the second city with 1.4 million and 3.2 million in its area; Naples, Turin, Palermo, Genoa, Bologna and Florence follow.
How big is Italy, and how many people live there?
About 301,340 km² (116,348 sq mi) — a little larger than Arizona, about the size of the Philippines — the boot of the peninsula from the Alps to the toe at Calabria, with Sicily and Sardinia, the two largest islands of the Mediterranean, and two sovereign enclaves within it, the Vatican and San Marino. Istat counts about 58.9 million people, the third-largest population in the European Union, falling since 2014 by the lowest birth rate in its history and the oldest median age in Europe; some 5 million residents are foreign-born.
What are the highest and lowest points of Italy?
Mont Blanc — Monte Bianco — whose summit at 4,809 m (15,777 ft) stands on the French border by the Italian view and just inside France by the French, with the Italian shoulder of Mont Blanc de Courmayeur at 4,748 m; and the Mediterranean, with the Po delta lowlands a few meters below the sea. Etna in Sicily, at about 3,350 m, is the tallest active volcano in Europe, Vesuvius above Naples the most dangerous, Stromboli the lighthouse of the sea; the Po, 652 km, the longest river; Lake Garda the largest lake.
What currency does Italy use?
The euro (ISO code EUR, €), since 1 January 1999 as a founder of the eurozone, with the notes and coins from 2002 replacing the lira at 1,936.27 — the lira of the Carolingians, the currency of the unified kingdom since 1861. Clocks keep Central European Time, UTC+1, with summer time; the Vatican and San Marino use the euro under agreements with their own coins.
Who governs Italy?
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of the Brothers of Italy, head of government since 22 October 2022 — the first woman in the office, at the head of a coalition of her party with Matteo Salvini's League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia that in September 2026 became the longest-lasting government of the republic since the war. In the referendum of 22–23 March 2026 Italians rejected by 53.7 percent her reform to separate the careers of judges and prosecutors, which she called "a lost opportunity" and the opposition a power grab; she stayed. President Sergio Mattarella has been the head of state since 3 February 2015, re-elected in 2022 for a term to 2029. The next general election is due in 2027.
World knowledge, A to Z — the flags of every country, the sciences, places, people and more.
We Value Your Opinion Comments