Vatican City
Name
| Official name | The Vatican City State (Stato della Città del Vaticano; Status Civitatis Vaticanae) — the sovereign state of the Lateran Treaty of 11 February 1929 (ratified on 7 June 1929; the Lateran Pacts' treaty, the concordat and the financial convention — the concordat revised on 18 February 1984), governed by the Fundamental Law of 26 November 2000 replaced by Francis's Fundamental Law of 13 May 2023 (in force on 7 June 2023); the territory of the Holy See (Sancta Sedes — the sovereign entity of the international law, distinct from the state — both the 'one sovereign' and the 'two subjects' readings stated, LAW 2) — the Holy See's diplomatic relations with about 184 states, the UN's permanent observer (1964), the OSCE's participating state, the Council of Europe's observer |
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| Former names | The Papal States (the Patrimony of St. Peter; the Stato Pontificio — from the Donation of Pepin of 756 to the capture of Rome on 20 September 1870), the Leonine City (the walled Borgo of Pope Leo IV of 846–852 — the Civitas Leonina), the ager Vaticanus and the Mons Vaticanus of the Romans (the Vatican hill outside the ancient city; the circus of Caligula and Nero); the 'prisoner in the Vatican' era of the popes (1870–1929 — the 'Roman Question') |
| Demonym | Vatican (the adjective; the citizens' own); the Vatican citizenship by the office (the law of 2011 — the Pope, the cardinals resident in Rome or the Vatican, the Holy See's diplomats, the Swiss Guards during service, the residents by their work) and lost with it; about 450–620 citizens by the different counts (both stated) — the largest share the Holy See's diplomats abroad |
| Meaning of the name | From the Vatican Hill (Mons Vaticanus) — the Latin 'Vaticanus' of the disputed origin: the Etruscan settlement of 'Vatica' or 'Vaticum' by one line, the Latin 'vates' (the soothsayer — the prophets' hill) by the folk etymology (both stated); 'the Holy See' (the 'holy seat') from the Latin sedes — the bishop's chair (the cathedra of St. Peter) |
| Motto | None by law for the state — the papal mottoes: Leo XIV's 'In Illo uno unum' ('In the One, we are one' — St. Augustine's line on Psalm 127, his episcopal motto kept as Pope), Francis's 'Miserando atque eligendo'; the Swiss Guard's 'Acriter et fideliter' ('Fiercely and faithfully'); the Holy See's 'Urbi et Orbi' ('to the City and to the World' — the blessing's title) |
Quick facts
| Capital | Vatican City (the city-state itself) — the enclave in Rome on the Tiber's right bank; St. Peter's Basilica (rebuilt 1506–1626 by Bramante, Michelangelo — the dome of 1547–1590 — Maderno and Bernini; the largest church interior of the world by the usual line, about 15,160 m² by the counts), St. Peter's Square (Bernini's colonnade of 284 columns, 1656–1667; the Egyptian obelisk raised in 1586), the Apostolic Palace (the Sistine Chapel — Michelangelo's ceiling of 1508–1512 and the Last Judgment of 1536–1541 — and the Raphael Rooms), the Vatican Museums (Pope Julius II's collection of 1506), the Vatican Apostolic Library (1475), the Apostolic Archive, the Vatican Gardens (about half of the territory), the Governorate Palace, the Casina Pio IV (the Pontifical Academy of Sciences) |
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| Largest cities | None besides the city-state — the Vatican's built zones: the basilica and the square, the Apostolic Palace, the Belvedere Courtyard and the museums, the Governorate and the gardens, the St. Anne's quarter (the Swiss Guard barracks, the pharmacy, the supermarket — the Annona, the post office), the Domus Sanctae Marthae (Francis's residence of 2013–2025); the extraterritorial properties in Rome (the Lateran, St. Mary Major, St. Paul Outside the Walls, the Palazzo della Cancelleria, the Palazzo di Propaganda Fide, the San Callisto) and Castel Gandolfo (the papal villa of about 55 ha in the Alban Hills — Leo XIV's summer stays of 2025 and 2026); the Santa Maria di Galeria radio center (about 424 ha; the extraterritorial site — APSA's agrivoltaic plan by the reports) |
| Official language | Italian — the state's working and legislative language (the Acta Apostolicae Sedis's supplement and the Governorate's laws in Italian); Latin the Holy See's official language (the encyclicals' and the canon law's texts; the Latin ATM of the IOR by the usual line); the Swiss Guard's German (the commands), French, Italian and Romansh speakers; English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German and Polish the Curia's common languages; the Vatican News's about 50 languages |
| Currency | The euro (EUR; €) — by the Monetary Agreement with the European Union of 17 December 2009 (in force on 1 January 2010; the Vatican's own euro coins up to a set face-value ceiling — the collectors' coins); the coins with the Pope's effigy (Francis to 2025, the 'sede vacante' coins of 2025, Leo XIV's of 2026), minted at the Italian State Mint; the Vatican lira (1929–2001) at par with the Italian lira; about 1.15–1.18 U.S. dollars to the euro and about 100–104 Indian rupees to the euro by the 2026 quotes (both stated); no central bank — the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) and the APSA; the anti-money-laundering authority (ASIF; 2010) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (Central European Time) and UTC+2 in the summer (CEST; the daylight saving from the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October) — the same clock as Rome, 4 hours 30 minutes behind India (IST) in the European winter and 3 hours 30 minutes in the summer; the liturgical calendar's feasts as the holidays |
| Calling code, internet and ISO codes | +379 assigned by the ITU but unused — the Vatican's telephones on Italy's +39 06 698 numbers (the Vatican Telephone Service; the Vatican's own exchange); internet .va (the Holy See's sites — vatican.va); Vatican Radio (1931 — Guglielmo Marconi's station; Vatican News since 2017) and the Vatican Television Center (1983); ISO 3166 VA, VAT, 336; the vehicle code V (and SCV — the 'Stato della Città del Vaticano' plates, 'Se Cristo Vedesse' of the Romans' jest); no IOC membership; the aircraft registration HV-; the plugs of Types C, F and L at 230 V and 50 Hz |
| Area | About 0.44 km² (44 hectares; about 109 acres) by the usual measure — about 0.49 km² by another (both stated) — the world's smallest sovereign state, about one-eighth of New York's Central Park, about 1/1,000 of New Delhi's area; the border with Italy about 3.2 km (the walls of the 9th–17th centuries and the white travertine line across St. Peter's Square's mouth); the extraterritorial properties of the Holy See in and around Rome (about 23 sites by the counts — the basilicas, the palaces, Castel Gandolfo of about 55 ha, Santa Maria di Galeria of about 424 ha) under the Lateran Treaty — not part of the state's territory |
| Population | 882 residents of 2024 and 764 of 2023 by the counts relayed (both stated) — the Pope, the cardinals and the clergy living inside the walls, the Swiss Guards (about 135 — the recruitment of 2025–26 toward the planned 150), the nuns, the lay staff and the families; the citizens about 450–620 by the different counts (both stated; about half living abroad — the nuncios and the diplomats); the men the large majority; the employees of the Holy See and the state about 4,000–5,000 (most commuting from Rome) |
| Density | About 1,700–2,200 people per km² by the counts (both stated; 764–882 residents on 0.44–0.49 km²) — the gardens about half of the land; the daytime population of the visitors about 25,000–30,000 a day at the museums and many more in the square (the Jubilee of 2025's crowds; the Easter and the Christmas blessings' about 50,000–100,000) |
| Religion | The Catholic Church — the state's whole purpose (the seat of the Pope, the Bishop of Rome and the supreme pontiff of about 1.4 billion Catholics — 1.422 billion by the Church's Statistical Yearbook of 2025 for 2023, by the reports); St. Peter's Basilica built over the tomb venerated as St. Peter's (the Scavi's excavations of 1939–1949 and Paul VI's 1968 announcement of the bones' identification — the faith's and the archaeology's debated lines both stated, LAW 2); the residents' religion Catholic by the office (the lay staff of other faiths among the employees) |
| Government type | An absolute elective monarchy — the theocratic sovereign the Pope (elected for life by the College of Cardinals under eighty in the conclave; the full legislative, executive and judicial powers by the Fundamental Law of 13 May 2023) — the legislative power delegated to the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State (the cardinals and the bishops, with its President), the executive to the President of the Governorate, the judicial to the Vatican tribunals (the Tribunal, the Court of Appeal, the Court of Cassation); the Holy See's government of the Church by the Roman Curia (the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium of 19 March 2022 — the dicasteries) |
| Head of state | Pope Leo XIV (Robert Francis Prevost; since 8 May 2025 — the 267th Pope by the Church's count) — born 14 September 1955 in Chicago, Illinois (the 71st birthday of 14 September 2026); the Augustinian friar (the Order of St. Augustine's Prior General of 2001–2013), the missionary in Peru (Trujillo, the 1980s–90s; Peru's citizen of 2015), the Bishop of Chiclayo (2015–2023), the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and the President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (2023–2025); elected on the conclave's fourth ballot (8 May 2025; 133 electors — the first U.S.-born pope); the first encyclical Magnifica Humanitas on the artificial intelligence (25 May 2026); the apostolic exhortation Dilexi te on the love for the poor (signed 4 October 2025, published 9 October) |
| Head of government | For the state — the President of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State and of the Governorate, Sister Raffaella Petrini (an Italian Franciscan sister; since 1 March 2025 — the first woman to lead the state's administration; the rule requiring a cardinal for the post removed on 21 November 2025, by the reports), with the Secretary-General and the Vice Secretary-General; for the Holy See — the Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin (since 15 October 2013), the Substitute Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra (the general affairs), the Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher; the Camerlengo Cardinal Kevin Farrell (the interregnum's administrator) |
| Legislature | The Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State — the legislative body by the Pope's delegation (the cardinals and the bishops named by the Pope for five years, with the President Sister Raffaella Petrini — the Commission's membership opened to the non-cardinals by the 2025 change, by the reports); the laws in Italian in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis's supplement; the Pope's own laws (the motu proprio); no elected body, no parties, no elections except the conclave (the College of Cardinals — about 245–255 cardinals and about 125–135 electors under 80 by the 2026 counts, both stated) |
| National Day | No national day by law for the state — the anniversary of the Pope's election (8 May for Leo XIV; the state's holiday); the Lateran Treaty's anniversary (11 February — the state's foundation day), the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul (29 June — the patrons of Rome, the pallium Mass), Christmas, Easter (the 'Urbi et Orbi' blessings), the Assumption (15 August), the Immaculate Conception (8 December), the Epiphany; the Swiss Guard's swearing-in on 6 May (the Sack of Rome's anniversary of 1527) |
| Driving side and HDI | Right (the few short streets — Via della Conciliazione is Italy's; the Vatican's cars with the SCV and the CV plates; the 'popemobiles' — the electric popemobile of Mercedes-Benz given in 2024); no Human Development Index computed for the state (not a UN member); the Holy See's 2024 accounts' surplus of about 1.6 million euros (by the Secretariat for the Economy) and APSA's 2025 net assets of about 2.686 billion euros (by APSA) |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | The flag of 7 June 1929 (the Fundamental Law's annex; restated in the 2000 and the 2023 laws) — two vertical bands of gold (yellow; the hoist) and white, with the crossed keys of St. Peter (one gold, one silver, tied with a red cord) beneath the papal tiara on the white band; the square proportion 1:1 (one of two square national flags, with Switzerland's); the gold and the silver keys the power of the binding and the loosing in heaven and on earth (Matthew 16:19), the tiara the papal authority; the yellow and white of the Papal States' flag of 1808 onward; the flag of the papal merchant navy and the stateFlag of Vatican City |
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| Coat of arms | The state's coat of arms — the crossed keys (gold and silver, the gold key in bend) under the papal tiara (the triregnum) on a red shield (the Holy See's arms) — and each pope's personal arms: Leo XIV's of 2025 (the blue field divided by a diagonal — the lily (the Virgin Mary) on the upper part and the Augustinian symbol of the closed book pierced by an arrow over a flaming heart on the lower — under the mitre and the crossed keys; the motto 'In Illo uno unum') |
| National anthem | The Pontifical Anthem and March (Inno e Marcia Pontificale) — the music by Charles Gounod (1869; for the jubilee of Pius IX's priesthood), adopted as the anthem on 16 October 1949 (the Holy Year's eve; replacing the Gran Marcia Trionfale of Viktor Hallmayr of 1857); the Latin words by Raffaello Lavagna (1991) and the Italian by Antonio Allegra (1950); played at the papal ceremonies and the state visits (no lyrics quoted) |
| National motto | None by law — the papal mottoes ('In Illo uno unum' of Leo XIV); the Swiss Guard's 'Acriter et fideliter'; the blessings 'Urbi et Orbi'; the 'Habemus Papam' of the election's announcement (Cardinal Dominique Mamberti's of 8 May 2025) |
| National colors | Gold (yellow) and white — the flag's (the papal colors of the 19th century; the keys' gold and silver); the red of the cardinals (the cardinals' red — the blood's readiness for the faith), the papal white (the white cassock since Pius V of 1566 by the usual line), the Swiss Guard's blue, red and yellow uniform (the Medici colors; the Renaissance design attributed to Michelangelo by the legend and to Commandant Jules Repond of 1914 by the record — both stated, LAW 2) |
| National animal | None by law — the doves of St. Peter's Square (the peace's sign; the Pope's release of the doves of the 2010s ended after the crows' attacks of 2014), the seagulls of the Sistine Chapel's chimney (the conclave of 2013's 'chimney gull' and of 2025's), the parrots and the green parakeets of the gardens; the Lamb of God and the pelican of the Christian symbols |
| National flower and tree | None by law — the Vatican Gardens' trees and flowers (about 23 hectares — the cedar of Lebanon, the holm oaks, the olive tree planted by Francis, the Lourdes grotto replica of 1902, the roses), the lily of Leo XIV's arms (the Marian symbol) |
| National dish | None by law — the state's canteen and the Annona supermarket's goods; the Roman dishes of the city around it; the papal tradition of the simple meals (Francis's Domus Sanctae Marthae canteen); the Holy See's 'Vatican wine' consumption record per person (the highest of the world by the per-head statistics of the Wine Institute — about 54–74 liters a year by the counts, both stated; the small population of the adults and the communal meals the cause) |
| National sport | None by law — the Clericus Cup (the football tournament of the seminarians and the priests of Rome's colleges; 2007), the Vatican's national football team (the amateur team of the staff; the matches against Monaco and the Swiss Guard), the Vatican Athletics (Athletica Vaticana; 2019 — the Holy See's runners at the Rome races), the Vatican cricket club (St. Peter's Cricket Club, 2013), the Swiss Guard's own football; no Olympic committee |
| Heritage listings | The entire state on UNESCO's World Heritage List (1984 — the 'Vatican City' property; the only whole state inscribed by the usual line) and Rome's historic center listing (1980, extended in 1990) covering the Holy See's extraterritorial properties in Rome together with Italy; the Hague Convention's special protection of 1960 (the only whole state under the cultural property's special protection by the usual line); the Vatican Apostolic Library's manuscripts, the Apostolic Archive |
| Symbol status | The flag, the coat of arms and the seal by the Fundamental Law (the 1929 law's annexes; the 2000 and the 2023 Fundamental Laws — the flag, the arms and the seal in the annexes); the Pontifical Anthem by the Holy See's choice of 1949; the Pope's personal arms by the heraldic custom; no national holiday, dish, animal or sport by law — the election's anniversary and the Lateran Treaty's day by custom |
Geography
| Location | Southern Europe — an enclave within the city of Rome, Italy, on the west (right) bank of the Tiber about 1 km from the river, at about 41°54′ N and 12°27′ E; on the Vatican Hill (Mons Vaticanus) and the Janiculum's northern foot, outside the ancient Aurelian walls; about 6,000 km from New Delhi; surrounded entirely by Italy (one of the world's three states enclaved within another, with San Marino and Lesotho) |
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| Regions | No administrative divisions — the zones of the territory: St. Peter's Square and the basilica (the east; the square open to the public, policed by the Italian police to the travertine line by the Lateran Treaty's arrangement), the Apostolic Palace and the Belvedere Courtyard with the Vatican Museums (the north and the center), the Vatican Gardens (the west and the south; about half of the land), the St. Anne's quarter (the services, the Swiss Guard barracks), the Governorate and the Vatican Railway station (the south), the Paul VI Audience Hall (partly on Italian soil — its Italian half extraterritorial by the treaty) |
| Highest point | The top of the Vatican Hill in the gardens' western part near the Leonine wall and the Vatican Radio's former tower — about 75–78 m above sea level by the surveys (both stated); the dome of St. Peter's (Michelangelo's design; completed by Giacomo della Porta in 1590) — about 136.6 m from the floor to the top of the cross, the tallest structure and the city's skyline mark (the climb of 551 steps to the lantern) |
| Lowest point | About 19–33 m above sea level by the counts (both stated) — at St. Peter's Square's eastern edge toward the Via della Conciliazione and the Tiber's plain; the Vatican Necropolis below the basilica (the Scavi; the Roman cemetery of the 1st–4th centuries and the tomb venerated as St. Peter's) and the Vatican Grottoes (the popes' tombs) |
| Longest river | None inside the state — the Tiber (about 405 km; Italy's third-longest river) flows about 1 km to the east through Rome; the fountains of the Vatican fed by the ancient Aqua Traiana and the Paola aqueduct (the Acqua Paola of 1612) — about 100 fountains by the counts, the square's twin fountains of Maderno (1614) and Bernini's copy (1677) |
| Largest lake | None — the gardens' ponds and the Fountain of the Eagle's pool (1612), the Fountain of the Galleon (the bronze ship that sprays water), the Casina Pio IV's fountains; the Lake Albano below Castel Gandolfo (the extraterritorial papal villa looks over Italy's crater lake) |
| Largest island | None — the landlocked enclave; the Tiber Island of Rome nearby (the Fatebenefratelli hospital's island — Italy's) |
| Climate | Mediterranean (Csa by the Köppen map) — Rome's climate: the hot, dry summers of about 30–35 °C (the 2020s' heat waves near 40 °C), the mild, wet winters of about 3–13 °C (the rare snow — the St. Peter's Square's snows of 2012 and 2018), the rainfall of about 750–800 mm a year mostly from October to April; the conclave of May 2025's spring weather |
| Natural hazards | The earthquakes of central Italy felt in Rome (the 2016 Amatrice and Norcia quakes' shaking; the dome's monitoring), the Tiber's floods of the past (the 1870 flood and the embankments of the 1876–1926 works protecting the city), the lightning (the bolt that struck St. Peter's dome on 11 February 2013 — the day of Benedict XVI's resignation announcement, by the photographs), the heat waves, the overcrowding's risks (the Jubilee's and the papal events' crowds) |
| Nearby countries | Italy only — the border of about 3.2 km (the walls and the square's travertine line; the gates — St. Anne's, the Arch of the Bells, the Perugino gate, the museums' entrance on the Viale Vaticano); the open border with Italy (no passport checks; the Schengen area's de facto access); San Marino (the other enclave in Italy — Leo XIV's visit of 22 August 2026); Malta's Sovereign Military Order's palaces in Rome (the extraterritorial Aventine and the Via dei Condotti — not a state's territory) |
| Minerals and resources | None — no farming, no mining; the state's 'resources' the cultural heritage (the museums' about 6.8–7 million visitors a year by the 2023–25 counts, both stated), the stamps and the coins (the Philatelic and Numismatic Office), the APSA's property in Italy (4,281 units) and abroad (about 1,200 units through the wholly owned companies — London, Paris, Geneva, Lausanne), the investments, the donations (the Peter's Pence); the solar panels on the Paul VI Hall (2008) and the agrivoltaic plan of Santa Maria di Galeria (the extraterritorial site; by the reports) |
| Protected areas | The whole state on UNESCO's World Heritage List (1984) and under the Hague Convention's special protection (1960); the Vatican Gardens (about 23 hectares — the formal Italian gardens, the English landscape garden, the French garden; the botanical rarities; the guided visits); the Castel Gandolfo's Barberini Gardens (opened to the public in 2014) and the Borgo Laudato Si' (Francis's ecological education project of 2023 at the papal villa) |
| Extreme points | North: the Viale Vaticano wall near the museums' entrance; South: the wall near the Palazzo del Sant'Uffizio and the Porta Cavalleggeri's line; West: the gardens' western wall; East: St. Peter's Square's travertine line on the Piazza Pio XII — the whole state within about 41°54′ N and 12°27′ E by the maps, about 1 km across at most |
| Land and water | About 0.44 km² (0.49 km² by the other measure — both stated) — the buildings and the squares about half, the gardens about half; no farmland, no natural water bodies; the aqueducts' water and the Rome's ACEA supply; the territory's longest line about 1,050 m east to west by the maps |
| Islands and coasts | None — the landlocked enclave; the Holy See's right to fly its flag at sea by the Barcelona Declaration of 1921 (no ships registered for decades by the counts); Rome's port of Civitavecchia (the old papal port, about 70 km away) |
| The country | The smallest state in five pictures — St. Peter's Square under the dome (the crowds of the Angelus and the 'Urbi et Orbi', the white smoke of the conclave), the Sistine Chapel's ceiling (Michelangelo's Creation of Adam), the Vatican Museums' spiral staircase (Giuseppe Momo's of 1932) and the Raphael Rooms, the Swiss Guards in the Renaissance colors at the gates, the gardens' paths behind the walls; the Pope's window over the square on the Sundays |
People
| Population | 882 residents of 2024 and 764 of 2023 by the counts relayed (both stated; about 800–840 in the 2010s' counts, about 1,000 of the 1930s) — the residents by their office: the Pope, the cardinals living inside the walls (a few — most cardinals of the Curia live in Rome's Holy See properties), the prelates and the priests, the nuns (the religious communities of the Apostolic Palace and the monastery Mater Ecclesiae — Benedict XVI's of 2013–2022), the Swiss Guards (about 135) and some families, the lay staff; the citizens about 450–620 (both stated) |
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| Growth rate | No natural growth to speak of — the residents and the citizens change with the offices (the Guards' terms, the clergy's assignments); the births inside the state rare (the Guards' families' children born in the Roman hospitals); the counts' rise from 764 (2023) to 882 (2024) by the relays (both stated) |
| Fertility rate | Not computed — the population of the clergy and the religious with few families (the Swiss Guard's officers and the married lay staff); the zero natural births of the territory by the usual line |
| Life expectancy | Not computed — the popes' long lives of the modern era (Benedict XVI died aged 95 on 31 December 2022; Francis aged 88 on 21 April 2025; Leo XIII, 93 in 1903 — the oldest reigning pope of the modern era by the usual line); the cardinals' under-80 rule for the conclave (1970) |
| Age structure | The residents older than any country's average by the office — the clergy and the prelates, with the young Swiss Guards (the recruits of 19–30 years, unmarried, Swiss Catholic men of at least 1.74 m by the rule) and the lay staff; the cardinals mostly above 70 (the conclave's electors under 80 by the rule) |
| Urbanization | 100% urban — the state an urban enclave of Rome (the Italian capital's 2.75–2.8 million people around it, both counts stated); the daily crowds of the tourists and the pilgrims (the museums' about 25,000–30,000 a day) |
| Ethnic groups | Not recorded by ethnicity — the residents' and the citizens' nationalities: the Italians the largest share, the Swiss (the Guards), the Americans, the Poles, the Spaniards, the Germans, the Indians and the clergy of about 60–70 nations; the Curia's international staff (the dicasteries' officials of the six continents); the College of Cardinals of about 90 countries by the 2025–26 counts (Europe's share falling below half of the electors since 2025, by the usual line) |
| Languages | Italian (the state's and the daily language), Latin (the Holy See's official language; the canon law and the encyclicals), German (the Swiss Guard's command language), French (the diplomatic heritage; the Holy See's diplomatic notes), English and Spanish (Leo XIV's own — the English of Chicago and the Spanish of Peru — and the Curia's working languages), Polish, Portuguese |
| Religion | Catholic — the state's whole reason; the Pope the Bishop of Rome, the Vicar of Christ and the Supreme Pontiff of the universal Church (about 1.42 billion Catholics of 2023 by the Church's Statistical Yearbook of 2025, by the reports — about 17.8% of the world); the Eastern Catholic Churches' sui iuris status; the ecumenical dialogue (the Orthodox, the Anglicans — King Charles III's prayer with Leo XIV in the Sistine Chapel of 23 October 2025, the first joint prayer of a British monarch and a pope since the 16th-century break, by the reports — the Lutherans) and the interreligious dialogue (the Metz Appeal of September 2026, by the reports) |
| Health | The Vatican's health services (the Health and Hygiene Directorate; the Vatican pharmacy — the Farmacia Vaticana of 1874, among the world's busiest single pharmacies by the usual line); the Holy See's hospitals in Rome (the Bambino Gesù children's hospital — the Holy See's own; the Gemelli of the Catholic University — Francis's hospital stays of 2021, 2023 and 14 February – 23 March 2025); the Pope's health bulletins (Francis's double pneumonia of 2025) |
| Education | No schools for the residents' children inside the walls (the Roman schools); the Holy See's pontifical universities and the colleges of Rome (the Gregorian — 1551, the Lateran, the Angelicum, the Urbaniana, the Salesianum, the Holy Cross, the Antonianum, the Lumsa; about 15,000–20,000 students by the counts), the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (1603 as the Lincei; refounded 1936), the Pontifical Academy for Life, the Vatican Observatory (the Specola; Castel Gandolfo and the Mount Graham telescope in Arizona — 1993), the Vatican Apostolic Library's and the Archive's scholars |
| Migrants and diaspora | The citizens abroad — the nuncios and the Holy See's diplomats (the citizenship held during the service; about half of the citizens), the cardinals of the world (the Vatican citizenship only for those living in Rome or the Vatican); the Vatican's daily commuters from Rome (about 4,000–5,000 employees of the Holy See and the state); the Holy See's migrants' policy (the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; Leo XIV's France visit to the Maison Bakhita of 26 September 2026) |
| Social indicators | The employees' pay and the pension fund's deficit (the Holy See's pension fund's shortfall — the 2024 commission and the reform's talks; both the 'sustainable with the reform' and the 'serious gap' lines stated, LAW 2); the employees' union (the Association of Vatican Lay Workers — ADLV's protests of the 2020s over the pay and the rules, by the reports); the women's leadership's firsts (Sister Simona Brambilla the first woman prefect of a dicastery, 6 January 2025; Sister Raffaella Petrini the state's first woman president, 1 March 2025; Montse Alvarado the first lay woman prefect, of the Dicastery for Communication, 2 June 2026 — by the reports) |
| Cities and provinces | No divisions — the state's single city; the Holy See's extraterritorial properties (the Lateran Palace and basilica, St. Mary Major — Francis's tomb of 26 April 2025, St. Paul Outside the Walls, the Palazzo della Cancelleria, the Palazzo della Dataria, the Palazzo di Propaganda Fide, the Palazzo del Sant'Uffizio, the Castel Gandolfo villa, the Santa Maria di Galeria radio center); the Diocese of Rome (the Pope its bishop; the Cardinal Vicar for the city) |
| Names and customs | The papal names (Leo XIV the 14th Leo — after Leo XIII of the Rerum Novarum of 1891, the social teaching; the first Leo since 1903), the conclave's rites (the Sistine Chapel's ballots, the black and the white smoke, the 'Habemus Papam' from the loggia, the Room of Tears), the Fisherman's Ring, the pallium, the Swiss Guard's 6 May oath, the Sunday Angelus at noon from the window (Leo XIV's return to the papal apartment), the Wednesday General Audience, the Christmas and the Easter 'Urbi et Orbi'; the Jubilees (the Holy Year of 2025 — the Holy Doors, about 33 million pilgrims by the Vatican's count) |
| Media and sport culture | The Holy See's media — L'Osservatore Romano (1861; the daily), Vatican Radio (1931; Marconi), the Vatican Television Center (1983), the Vatican News portal (2017; about 50 languages), the Dicastery for Communication (Montse Alvarado its prefect from June 2026, by the reports); the papal accounts on X (@Pontifex — the nine languages) and Instagram (@Pontifex); the Holy See Press Office (the director Matteo Bruni); the sport — the Clericus Cup, the Athletica Vaticana, the cricket club, Leo XIV's own tennis and his Chicago White Sox fandom (by the reports) |
Government
| System | An absolute elective monarchy and theocracy — the Pope the sovereign of the Vatican City State with the full legislative, executive and judicial powers (the Fundamental Law of 13 May 2023, in force 7 June 2023), elected for life by the conclave of the cardinals under 80 (the Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis of 1996 as amended; a two-thirds majority); the Holy See — the sovereign subject of the international law and the Church's central government (the Roman Curia of the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium of 2022 — the Secretariat of State and the 16 dicasteries); the state the territorial base of the Holy See's independence (the 'two subjects' line and the 'one sovereignty' line both stated, LAW 2) |
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| Head of state | Pope Leo XIV (since 8 May 2025; the 267th pope by the Church's count) — Robert Francis Prevost, born 14 September 1955 in Chicago; the Augustinian; the missionary bishop of Chiclayo in Peru; the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops (2023–2025) and the cardinal of 30 September 2023 (the cardinal-bishop of Albano from February 2025); elected on the conclave's fourth ballot of 8 May 2025 (133 electors) after Francis's death of 21 April 2025; inaugurated on 18 May 2025; the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas (25 May 2026) and the exhortation Dilexi te (October 2025); the journeys of 2025–26 (Turkey and Lebanon; Monaco; Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea; Spain; San Marino; France — 25–28 September 2026) |
| Head of government | For the state — the President of the Governorate and of the Pontifical Commission, Sister Raffaella Petrini (since 1 March 2025; the first woman; born 1969, the Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist, the economist) — the Governorate's directorates (the museums, the security and the civil protection — the Gendarmerie Corps, the health, the infrastructure, the telecommunications, the economy, the personnel); for the Holy See — the Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin (since 15 October 2013; the papal 'prime minister' — the diplomacy and the general affairs), the Substitute Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher; the Council for the Economy and the Secretariat for the Economy (the Prefect Maximino Caballero Ledo) |
| Legislature | The Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State — the cardinals and the bishops appointed by the Pope for five-year terms with its President Sister Raffaella Petrini (the presidency opened to the non-cardinals; the 21 November 2025 change by the reports); the state's laws in Italian (the Acta Apostolicae Sedis's supplement); the Pope's reserved legislation (the motu proprio, the Fundamental Law's changes, the budget's approval); no elected body — the College of Cardinals the electors of the pope (the consistories — the extraordinary consistories of Leo XIV of 7 January 2026, with about 170 cardinals, and of 26–27 June 2026) |
| Parties | None — no political parties, no elections in the state; the conclave the only election (the cardinals under 80; the 2025 conclave of 133 electors from about 70 countries); the Curia's 'camps' of the commentators' readings (the reformers and the traditionalists — both stated, LAW 2) not parties |
| Judiciary | The Vatican tribunals by the Pope's authority — the Tribunal of the Vatican City State (the first instance; the President Giuseppe Pignatone), the Court of Appeal, the Court of Cassation (the cardinals), the Office of the Promoter of Justice (the prosecutor — Alessandro Diddi of the London property trial); the Holy See's own tribunals for the Church's cases — the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Apostolic Signatura (the supreme court of the canon law), the Roman Rota (the marriage cases); the 'trial of the century' — Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu's conviction of 16 December 2023 (5½ years for the embezzlement — the London property deal) and the appeal court's partial mistrial of 17 March 2026 over the prosecution's procedural errors with a new trial from 22 June 2026 (both the conviction and the cardinal's innocence claim stated, LAW 2; by the reports) |
| Administrative divisions | None — the single city-state; the Governorate's directorates and the offices; the Holy See's extraterritorial properties in Rome and Castel Gandolfo (Italy's territory under the Holy See's immunities by the Lateran Treaty's Articles 13–16); the Vatican's parish (St. Anne's in the Vatican; the papal sacristy's care of the Pope's household) |
| Constitution and rights | The Fundamental Law of the Vatican City State (13 May 2023; Francis's — replacing the 2000 and the 1929 laws; the Pope's full powers, the 'missionary' purpose of the state, the Pontifical Commission's role, the Governorate, the judiciary); the canon law (the Code of Canon Law of 1983 — the 2021 revision of the penal book on the abuse) as the first source of the state's law; the Italian law as a supplementary source (the 2008 law on the sources); the human rights' treaties of the Holy See (the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1990; the Convention against Torture, 2002); the abuse crisis's laws (Vos estis lux mundi of 2019, made permanent in 2023; the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors — Bishop Thibault Verny its president of 2025, by the reports) — the reforms' line and the survivors' 'not enough' line both stated (LAW 2) |
| Military | No army — the Pontifical Swiss Guard (the Guardia Svizzera Pontificia; 22 January 1506 under Julius II — the world's oldest standing army unit in continuous service by the usual line; about 135 Guards, the planned 150 by the barracks' rebuild — the Swiss Catholic men of 19–30; the Sack of Rome's stand of 6 May 1527 — 147 of 189 Guards killed) and the Gendarmerie Corps of the Vatican City State (the police; about 130–150 officers); the Palatine Guard and the Noble Guard abolished by Paul VI in 1970; Italy's protection of the square and the airspace by the treaty |
| Foreign relations | The Holy See — the diplomatic relations with about 184 states (the European Union and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta too), the apostolic nunciatures (about 106–110 resident), the UN's permanent observer (1964; the enhanced rights of 2004), the OSCE's participating state, the Council of Europe's and the African Union's observer; China (the provisional agreement on the bishops' appointment of 2018, renewed in 2020, 2022 and 2024 for four years — the 'dialogue' line and the 'concession' line both stated, LAW 2), Vietnam (the resident papal representative of 2023), Russia and Ukraine (the peace's offer; Leo XIV's appeals), the Middle East (the Turkey and Lebanon journey of 27 November – 2 December 2025), the United States (the first U.S.-born pope; the visits of the U.S. leaders), France (the journey of 25–28 September 2026 — Macron's meeting, by the reports), India (the relations since 1948; the Indian cardinals) |
| Police and security | The Gendarmerie Corps (the Vatican police; the Commander Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti) with the Swiss Guard (the Pope's personal security); Italy's police on St. Peter's Square to the border and the Rome's security for the Jubilee and the conclave; the Vatican's cybersecurity; the 1981 assassination attempt on John Paul II in the square (13 May 1981 — Mehmet Ali Ağca); the 'Vatileaks' cases (2012, 2015); the 'trial of the century' (the London property, 2021–2023 and its 2026 partial retrial) |
| Elections | No public elections — the papal conclave in the Sistine Chapel (the conclave of 7–8 May 2025: 133 cardinal electors, the fourth ballot, the white smoke at 6:07 pm on 8 May, the 'Habemus Papam' by the Protodeacon Cardinal Dominique Mamberti; the 2013 conclave of 115 electors); the rules of Universi Dominici Gregis (1996; Benedict XVI's amendments of 2007 and 2013 — the two-thirds majority in every ballot) |
| The politics of 2024–26 in dates | 24 Dec 2024 the Jubilee's Holy Door opened; 6 Jan 2025 Sister Simona Brambilla the first woman dicastery prefect; 14 Feb 2025 Francis hospitalized (the double pneumonia); 1 Mar 2025 Sister Raffaella Petrini the Governorate's President; 21 Apr 2025 Francis dies at 88 (the Easter Monday); 26 Apr 2025 the funeral and the burial at St. Mary Major; 7–8 May 2025 the conclave and Leo XIV's election; 18 May 2025 the inauguration; 7 Sep 2025 the canonizations of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati; 9 Oct 2025 Dilexi te; 23 Oct 2025 King Charles III's prayer with the Pope; 27 Nov – 2 Dec 2025 Turkey and Lebanon; 6 Jan 2026 the Jubilee's close; 7 Jan 2026 the extraordinary consistory; 17 Mar 2026 the Becciu partial mistrial; 13–23 Apr 2026 the African journey; 25 May 2026 Magnifica Humanitas; 2 Jun 2026 Montse Alvarado's appointment; 6–12 Jun 2026 Spain; 26–27 Jun 2026 the consistory; 1–2 Jul 2026 the Society of Saint Pius X's consecrations and the excommunication decree; 22 Aug 2026 San Marino; 25–28 Sep 2026 France |
| Current issues | The finances' sustainability (the Holy See's 2024 surplus of about 1.6 million euros after the 2023 deficit of 51.2 million — the Secretariat for the Economy's 'clearly positive direction' with the caution on the one-off gains; the pension fund's gap — both lines stated, LAW 2), the Society of Saint Pius X's 'schism' (the decree of 2 July 2026 — the Society's 'unjust' rejection, both stated, LAW 2), the artificial intelligence's ethics (Magnifica Humanitas), the abuse cases and the accountability, the women's roles in the Curia, the synodality's implementation (the synodal assemblies of 2027–2028), the China agreement, the wars' diplomacy (Ukraine, the Middle East), the journeys ahead (Uruguay, Argentina and Peru planned for 6–17 November 2026; World Youth Day in Seoul, 2027) |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | Not computed as a national economy — the state's and the Holy See's accounts instead: the Holy See's consolidated 2024 result a surplus of about 1.6 million euros (the 2023 deficit of 51.2 million; the operating deficit down from 83 to 44 million euros by the Secretariat for the Economy's statement of 25 November 2025); the Governorate's budget of about 300–350 million euros a year by the relays (the museums' revenue its core, both figures stated); the per-head 'GDP' estimates of the outside tables (about 19,000–21,000 euros of 2021 by one relay) of little meaning for the state |
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| GDP (PPP) | Not computed by the IMF or the World Bank (the Vatican is not a member of either) — the outside estimates of about 15–25 million euros of the 2020s by the relays (both stated); the state's income the museums' tickets, the stamps, the coins, the publications and the APSA's property and the investments; the Holy See's income the donations (the Peter's Pence and the dioceses' contributions under Canon 1271), the investments and the Holy See's institutions |
| Growth and inflation | No national growth statistics — the Holy See's finances' trend: the 2024 surplus after the deficits of the 2020s (the pandemic's museum closures of 2020–21 — the revenue's collapse), the Jubilee of 2025's visitors (about 33 million pilgrims by the Vatican's count) and the museums' records; the Italian and the euro area's inflation (about 1.5–2.5% in 2025–26 by the counts) for the state's prices (the Vatican's tax-free supermarket and the petrol station for the employees) |
| Monetary policy and the euro | The euro by the Monetary Agreement with the European Union (17 December 2009; in force 1 January 2010) — the Vatican's euro coins (the annual face-value ceiling; the collectors' sets and the commemoratives — the 'sede vacante' coins of 2025 and the first Leo XIV coins of 2026); the European Central Bank's policy (the deposit rate of about 2% in 2025–26 by the counts); no central bank — the IOR (the Institute for the Works of Religion; 1942 — about 5–6 billion euros of the clients' assets by the reports) and the APSA (the 'central bank' functions of the Holy See's treasury by the usual line); the Supervisory and Financial Information Authority (ASIF; 2010 as the AIF) — MONEYVAL's evaluations (2012, 2021) |
| Public finances | The Holy See's 2024 accounts — the surplus of about 1.6 million euros; the revenue up 79 million (the donations and the hospitals); the investment income of 46 million; the Apostolic Mission and the pontifical funds of 393.29 million — the support of the local Churches 37% (146.4 million), the worship and the evangelization 14%, the communication 12%, the nunciatures 10%, the charity 10% (the Secretariat for the Economy, 25 November 2025); APSA's 2025 statements (July 2026) — the net assets of 2.686 billion euros (+89 million), the operating result of 22.8 million, the contribution of 22.7 million to the Holy See, the portfolio's return of 14.37%; the Peter's Pence (about 50–60 million euros a year of the 2020s by the reports — both stated) |
| Structure and labor | The services only — the Holy See's and the state's offices, the museums (about 700 staff by the counts), the library and the archive, the media, the pharmacy, the post office, the supermarket, the petrol station, the gardens, the maintenance (the Fabbrica di San Pietro — the basilica's works), the APSA's real estate (4,281 units in Italy; about 1,200 abroad); the employees about 4,000–5,000 (the Holy See's and the Governorate's — both stated), the lay workers' association ADLV; the 2024–25 pay and the hiring freeze measures (by the reports) |
| Trade | No customs or trade statistics (the customs union with Italy in practice; the goods enter through Italy) — the 'exports' the stamps, the coins, the publications (the Vatican Publishing House — LEV), the museums' tickets and the souvenirs; the Vatican Pharmacy's and the supermarket's imports for the staff (the tax-free goods — the cigarettes' sale ended by Francis in 2018) |
| Agriculture | None inside the walls (the gardens' small vegetable plots and the olive trees) — the papal farm of Castel Gandolfo (the Pontifical Villas' farm: the cows, the hens, the olive oil, the honey and the vegetables for the papal household and the Vatican's supermarket, by the usual line) |
| Industry | None in the industrial sense — the craft workshops of the Governorate (the mosaics' studio — the Vatican Mosaic Studio of the 16th century's roots, the restoration laboratories of the museums, the tapestry's and the paintings' conservation), the Vatican Typography (the printing works), the Philatelic and Numismatic Office, the Vatican Radio's transmitters (Santa Maria di Galeria — the shortwave masts of 1957) |
| Tourism | The Vatican Museums — about 6.8–7 million visitors a year by the 2023–25 counts (both stated; among the world's five most visited art museums by the usual line), the Sistine Chapel (about 25,000 a day at the peaks), St. Peter's Basilica (free; the dome's climb), the Scavi's necropolis tours, the Vatican Gardens' guided visits, the Castel Gandolfo museum; the Jubilee of 2025 (about 33 million pilgrims to Rome by the Vatican's count); the papal audiences and the Angelus' crowds |
| Energy | The electricity and the gas from Italy's grid (the ACEA and the Italian suppliers); the photovoltaic roof of the Paul VI Audience Hall (2008; about 2,400 panels — the early 'green Vatican'), Francis's carbon-neutrality goal of 2050 for the state and the Laudato si' encyclical of 2015 (the ecology); the electric vehicles' fleet by 2030 plan; the agrivoltaic plant planned at Santa Maria di Galeria (the 2024 motu proprio Fratello Sole — the Vatican's energy needs by the solar power; by the reports) |
| Banks and markets | The Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR; the 'Vatican Bank' — 27 June 1942; the clients the Church's institutions, the clergy, the diplomats and the employees; the reforms of 2013–2020 — the closure of about 5,000 accounts; the profits' share to the Pope's works; the 2022 rule that the Holy See's funds be held at the IOR), the APSA (the patrimony and the treasury), the ASIF (the financial authority); no stock exchange, no other banks; the Vatican's ATM of the Latin menu by the usual line |
| Infrastructure projects | The Swiss Guard's new barracks (the foundation's fundraising since 2018; the construction planned for the late 2020s — the 150 Guards' housing), the St. Peter's Basilica's restorations (the Bernini baldachin's restoration of 2024 for the Jubilee; the colonnade's cleaning of 2021–2025), the museums' new entrance and the visitors' routes, the Domus Paolo VI's redevelopment and the APSA's property enhancement plan of 2025–2027 (the disposal of the non-strategic buildings, by the reports), the Santa Maria di Galeria's agrivoltaic plant (Fratello Sole of 2024) |
| Poverty and inequality | Not computed — the state's welfare by the employment (the housing at low rents for the staff, the pharmacy, the tax-free store); the Holy See's charity — the Dicastery for the Service of Charity (the Papal Almoner — Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín from 12 March 2026, after Cardinal Konrad Krajewski's move to Łódź, by the reports), the showers and the clinic for the homeless under the colonnade (2015 onward), the World Day of the Poor (November), Dilexi te's call (2025) |
| Economic history in brief | The Papal States' revenues (the taxes of central Italy, 756–1870); the 'prisoner' era's Peter's Pence (from 1860s' donations); the Lateran Treaty's financial convention (1929 — 750 million lire in cash and 1 billion lire in the state bonds as the compensation for the Papal States, the base of the Vatican's investments by Bernardino Nogara); the IOR's founding (1942); the Banco Ambrosiano scandal (1982 — the IOR's role and its 'goodwill' payment of about 240 million dollars of 1984, both the 'moral responsibility' and the 'no legal liability' lines stated, LAW 2); the deficits of the 1990s–2020s; Francis's reforms (the Secretariat for the Economy of 2014, the 2022 centralization at the IOR and the APSA); the London property loss (the Sloane Avenue building — about 140 million euros or more by the counts, both stated); the 2024 surplus |
Transport
| Roads | A few streets and lanes inside the walls (about 1–2 km in all by the counts, both stated — the Via della Posta, the Viale dell'Osservatorio of the gardens, the Stradone dei Giardini), no public traffic; the vehicles with the SCV and the CV plates (the Holy See's and the state's — the highest rate of cars per person by the usual quip); the papal car fleet (the popemobiles — the electric Mercedes-Benz of 2024 for Francis and the open cars for Leo XIV's square rounds); the Via della Conciliazione (Italy's; 1936–1950) leading to the square |
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| Rail | The Vatican Railway — about 300 m of track (the world's shortest national railway by the usual line) and the Vatican City railway station (1934; Giuseppe Momo's marble station) linked to Italy's Roma San Pietro station; the freight of the goods and the occasional passenger trips (the pope's trains — John XXIII's of 1962 to Loreto and Assisi; the weekly tourist train to Castel Gandolfo of 2015 onward, by the reports) |
| City transit | None inside the state — the visitors by Rome's transit (the Metro's line A at Ottaviano–San Pietro and Cipro–Musei Vaticani, the buses of Rome's ATAC, the trams to the Risorgimento square); the Jubilee's Rome transport works of 2024–25 (the Piazza Pia underpass, the square's new pedestrian area) |
| Air | The Vatican heliport (1976; Paul VI's — the gardens' western end; the pope's flights to Castel Gandolfo and the Roman airports) — no airport; the papal flights by the chartered airliners (ITA Airways — 'Shepherd One' the press's nickname — and the host countries' carriers; Leo XIV's flights to Turkey, Lebanon, Monaco, Africa, Spain and France of 2025–26); Rome's Fiumicino (about 25 km) and Ciampino airports |
| Ports and waterways | None — the landlocked enclave; the Holy See's right to a flag at sea by the Barcelona Declaration of 1921 (no ships registered for decades by the counts); the Tiber about 1 km east; the old papal ports of Civitavecchia and Ancona (the Papal States' of 756–1870) |
| Energy and utilities | The electricity, the gas and the water from Italy (ACEA's Roman supply; the Lateran Treaty's provision of the water — the aqueducts' share, the Acqua Paola), the Vatican Telephone Service (the own exchange on +39 06 698; the ITU's unused +379), the Vatican Post (the Poste Vaticane — the stamps and the post office of St. Peter's Square; the mail's speed's fame by the usual line), the Vatican Radio's transmitters of Santa Maria di Galeria, the waste and the recycling of the Governorate (the 2020s' 'green' rules) |
| Border crossings and bridges | The open border with Italy (no checks) — the entrances: St. Peter's Square (the basilica; the security check under the colonnade), the St. Anne's Gate (the Porta Sant'Anna — the Swiss Guards' and the Gendarmes' control for the residents and the staff), the Arch of the Bells (the Arco delle Campane — left of the basilica; the Swiss Guards), the Perugino Gate (the vehicles), the Vatican Museums' entrance on the Viale Vaticano; the Passetto di Borgo (the 13th-century elevated passage of about 800 m to the Castel Sant'Angelo — the popes' escape route of 1494 and 1527) |
History in dates
| c. 100 BCE – 64 CE | The ager Vaticanus — the marshy plain and the hill across the Tiber outside ancient Rome (the Etruscan-era name); Agrippina the Elder's gardens; the Circus of Caligula and Nero (begun about 37–41 CE; the Egyptian obelisk of Heliopolis brought by Caligula — the obelisk of today's square); the persecution after the Great Fire of Rome (64 CE) — St. Peter's martyrdom in the circus about 64–67 CE by the tradition (the crucifixion upside down; the faith's and the historians' lines both stated, LAW 2) |
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| 64 – 312 | The Vatican Necropolis (the pagan and the Christian tombs of the 1st–4th centuries); the 'trophy' (the aedicula) over the tomb venerated as Peter's, mentioned by the priest Gaius about 200 CE; the persecutions of the Christians (Decius, Valerian, Diocletian); the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (28 October 312 — Constantine's victory) |
| 312 – 590 | Constantine's Edict of Milan (313) and the Old St. Peter's Basilica (begun about 319–326 over the tomb; consecrated about 326–333 by the counts, both stated) — the Lateran the popes' residence and cathedral (Constantine's gift); the fall of the Western Empire (476); Pope Leo I (the Great; 440–461 — the meeting with Attila of 452 by the tradition, the first Leo) and Pope Gelasius I's 'two powers' (494); the Gothic wars |
| 590 – 846 | Pope Gregory the Great (590–604; the Rome's civil government in the Byzantine weakness); the Donation of Pepin (756 — the Papal States' beginning, the lands of central Italy given by the Frankish king); Charlemagne's coronation as Emperor by Leo III in Old St. Peter's (25 December 800); the Saracens' sack of St. Peter's (846) — the Leonine Wall's construction by Leo IV (847–852; the Leonine City) |
| 846 – 1309 | The Papal States' medieval age — the 'pornocracy' of the 10th century by the old historians' line, the Gregorian Reform (Gregory VII, 1073–1085), the Investiture Controversy, the Crusades (Urban II's call of 1095), Innocent III's height of the papal power (1198–1216); the first Vatican palace's building by Eugene III and Innocent III; Nicholas III's residence at the Vatican (1277–1280) and the Passetto di Borgo (about 1277); Boniface VIII's first Jubilee (1300) |
| 1309 – 1417 | The Avignon papacy (1309–1377; seven French popes at Avignon) and the return to Rome by Gregory XI (1377); the Western Schism (1378–1417 — two and then three rival popes) ended by the Council of Constance (Martin V's election, 11 November 1417); the Vatican's choice as the papal residence in place of the Lateran (the 1370s onward) |
| 1417 – 1503 | The Renaissance papacy — Nicholas V (1447–1455; the Vatican Library's founding plans, the new basilica's idea), Sixtus IV (1471–1484; the Sistine Chapel — 1473–1481, the walls' frescoes by Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandaio; the Vatican Library's formal founding of 1475), Alexander VI (1492–1503; the Borgia; the Treaty of Tordesillas' line of 1494 by the bull of 1493) |
| 1503 – 1527 | Julius II (1503–1513; the 'warrior pope') — the new St. Peter's Basilica's foundation stone (18 April 1506; Bramante's plan), the Swiss Guard (22 January 1506), Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling (1508–1512), Raphael's Rooms (1508–1524), the Vatican Museums' beginnings (the Laocoön's display of 1506); Leo X (1513–1521; the indulgences and Luther's 95 Theses of 1517); the Sack of Rome by Charles V's troops (6 May 1527; the Swiss Guard's last stand — 147 killed; Clement VII's escape by the Passetto) |
| 1527 – 1600 | The Counter-Reformation — the Council of Trent (1545–1563); Michelangelo's Last Judgment (1536–1541) and the dome's design (1547–1564); the Gregorian Calendar (Gregory XIII's bull of 24 February 1582); Sixtus V (1585–1590; the obelisk's move to the square in 1586, the dome's completion by Giacomo della Porta in 1590) |
| 1600 – 1700 | St. Peter's Basilica's consecration by Urban VIII (18 November 1626; Carlo Maderno's nave and facade of 1607–1614); Bernini's baldachin (1623–1634), the Chair of St. Peter (1657–1666) and the colonnade of St. Peter's Square (1656–1667); Galileo's trial (1633 — the Church's 1992 acknowledgment of the error under John Paul II); the Scala Regia |
| 1700 – 1815 | The Vatican Museums' public galleries (the Pio-Clementine Museum of 1771–1793); the French Revolution's wars — Pius VI taken to France (1798; died at Valence in 1799), the Roman Republic (1798–1799), Napoleon's annexation of the Papal States (1809) and Pius VII's captivity (1809–1814); the Congress of Vienna's restoration of the Papal States (1815) |
| 1815 – 1870 | The Papal States' last decades — the revolutions of 1848 and the Roman Republic of 1849 (Mazzini and Garibaldi; Pius IX's flight to Gaeta), the French garrison's protection; Italy's unification taking most of the Papal States (1860); the First Vatican Council (1869–1870 — the papal infallibility's dogma of 18 July 1870); the capture of Rome by the Italian army at the Porta Pia (20 September 1870) — the Papal States' end |
| 1870 – 1929 | The 'Roman Question' — the popes' self-imposed confinement as the 'prisoners in the Vatican' (Pius IX, Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI); the Law of Guarantees of 1871 refused by the popes; Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum (1891; the Catholic social teaching); Benedict XV's peace note of 1917; the Lateran Treaty negotiated by Cardinal Pietro Gasparri and Benito Mussolini (the Italian state's recognition of the Holy See's sovereignty over the Vatican City; the 'conciliation' and the 'pact with the fascist regime' readings both stated, LAW 2) |
| 1929 – 1939 | The Lateran Treaty signed on 11 February 1929 (ratified 7 June 1929 — the Vatican City State's birth; the Fundamental Law and the flag of 7 June); the state's building program — the Governorate Palace (1931), the railway station (1934), Vatican Radio (12 February 1931; Guglielmo Marconi; Pius XI's first broadcast), the new museums' entrance (1932); Pius XI's encyclicals against Nazism (Mit brennender Sorge, 1937) and Communism; Pius XII's election (2 March 1939) |
| 1939 – 1958 | World War II — the Vatican's neutrality; Pius XII's (1939–1958) wartime record (the hidden help to the Jews in Rome's convents and the Castel Gandolfo refuge — the 'silence' critique and the 'quiet diplomacy' defense both stated, LAW 2; the wartime archives opened on 2 March 2020); the German occupation of Rome (1943–44) and the deportation of Rome's Jews (16 October 1943); the bombs on the Vatican (5 November 1943 and 1 March 1944); the Holy Year of 1950 and the Assumption's dogma (1 November 1950); the Scavi's excavations (1939–1949) |
| 1958 – 1978 | John XXIII (1958–1963; 'Good Pope John') and the Second Vatican Council (11 October 1962 – 8 December 1965 — the liturgy in the vernacular, the ecumenism, the religious freedom); Paul VI (1963–1978; the first modern pope to travel — Jerusalem 1964, India's Bombay Eucharistic Congress of 1964, the UN of 1965; Humanae Vitae of 1968; the Palatine and the Noble Guards abolished in 1970); the year of three popes (1978 — Paul VI's death on 6 August, John Paul I's 33-day pontificate, John Paul II's election on 16 October) |
| 1978 – 2005 | John Paul II (Karol Wojtyła; 1978–2005 — the first non-Italian pope since 1523; 104 foreign journeys — India in 1986 and 1999), the assassination attempt in the square (13 May 1981), the Banco Ambrosiano scandal (1982), the revised concordat with Italy (18 February 1984; Catholicism no longer the state religion of Italy), the new Code of Canon Law (1983), the fall of Communism (1989), the Great Jubilee of 2000, the Fundamental Law of 26 November 2000; his death on 2 April 2005 (the funeral's crowds of millions) |
| 2005 – 2013 | Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger; 19 April 2005 – 28 February 2013) — the 'Vatileaks' of 2012 (the butler Paolo Gabriele's leaks), the financial transparency laws (the AIF of 2010; MONEYVAL's 2012 review), the Ordinariates for the former Anglicans (2009), the Latin Mass's liberalization (2007); the resignation announced on 11 February 2013 (the first since Gregory XII of 1415) — the Pope Emeritus at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery (died 31 December 2022) |
| 2013 – 2019 | Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio; elected 13 March 2013 — the first pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit) — the Domus Sanctae Marthae residence, the Curia's reform council (the C9), the Secretariat for the Economy (2014), the IOR's account closures, Laudato si' (2015), the Holy Year of Mercy (2015–16), the China agreement (2018), the abuse summit (February 2019) and Vos estis lux mundi (May 2019) |
| 2020 – 2022 | The pandemic (the empty St. Peter's Square's 'Urbi et Orbi' of 27 March 2020; the museums' closures); the Pius XII archives opened (2 March 2020); Fratelli tutti (2020); the 'trial of the century' over the London property (from July 2021); Traditionis custodes (16 July 2021; the Latin Mass's restriction); the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium (19 March 2022; in force 5 June 2022 — the Curia's reform; the lay prefects allowed); the IOR centralization (2022); Benedict XVI's death (31 December 2022) |
| 2023 | Benedict XVI's funeral led by Francis (5 January 2023 — the first funeral of a pope led by a successor by the usual line); the Fundamental Law of 13 May 2023 (in force 7 June); the Synod on Synodality's first session (October 2023); Becciu's conviction (16 December 2023 — 5½ years; the appeal); Fiducia supplicans (18 December 2023 — the blessings' debate, both the pastoral and the critics' lines stated, LAW 2) |
| 2024 | The Bernini baldachin's restoration (2024) for the Jubilee; the motu proprio Fratello Sole (the solar power plan of Santa Maria di Galeria); the electric popemobile (December 2024); the Synod's second session (October 2024) and its final document; the China agreement's renewal for four years (October 2024); the Holy Door's opening for the Jubilee of Hope (24 December 2024) |
| 2025 (January – April) | The Jubilee of Hope (the pilgrims' year); Sister Simona Brambilla's appointment (6 January); Sister Raffaella Petrini the Governorate's President (1 March); Francis's hospital stay at the Gemelli (14 February – 23 March 2025 — the double pneumonia); his last 'Urbi et Orbi' on Easter Sunday (20 April) and his death on Easter Monday (21 April 2025, aged 88 — the stroke and the heart failure by the death certificate); the funeral of 26 April (about 250,000 by the Vatican's count) and the burial at St. Mary Major |
| 2025 (May – December) | The conclave (7–8 May 2025; 133 electors) — Robert Francis Prevost elected as Leo XIV on the fourth ballot (8 May); the inauguration Mass (18 May); the canonizations of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati (7 September 2025); Dilexi te (9 October); King Charles III's joint prayer with the Pope in the Sistine Chapel (23 October); the Holy See's 2024 accounts (25 November); the Turkey and Lebanon journey (27 November – 2 December 2025 — the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea at İznik) |
| 2026 (January – June) | The Jubilee's close (6 January 2026); the extraordinary consistory (7 January; about 170 cardinals); the Monaco visit (17 January); the Almoner's change (12 March); the Becciu partial mistrial (17 March; the new trial from 22 June, by the reports); the African journey (13–23 April — Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, Equatorial Guinea); the first anniversary of the election (8 May); the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas on the artificial intelligence (25 May 2026); Montse Alvarado the Dicastery for Communication's prefect (2 June, by the reports); Spain (6–12 June); the extraordinary consistory (26–27 June) |
| 2026 (July – October) | The Society of Saint Pius X's consecration of four bishops at Écône without the papal mandate (1 July 2026) and the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith's decree of the 'latae sententiae' excommunication of the six bishops involved (2 July 2026; the 'schism' — the Society's 'unjust' reply, both stated, LAW 2); APSA's 2025 statements (July; the net assets of 2.686 billion euros); the San Marino visit (22 August); Leo XIV's 71st birthday (14 September); the France journey (25–28 September 2026 — Paris's Notre-Dame and the Concorde Mass of about 600,000–700,000 by the two counts, both stated; Lourdes; Metz's appeal for peace); the General Audience's 'rebirth' reflection (30 September) |
| The popes in brief | St. Peter (died about 64–67 CE) to Leo XIV (2025) — 267 popes by the Church's count (the antipopes aside); the longest reigns — Pius IX (31 years 7 months; 1846–1878) and John Paul II (26 years 5 months; 1978–2005); the shortest — Urban VII (13 days; 1590); the non-Italian popes since 1978 (the Pole, the German, the Argentine, the American); the resignations — Celestine V (1294), Gregory XII (1415), Benedict XVI (2013) |
| The councils in brief | The 21 ecumenical councils by the Catholic count — from Nicaea (325; the 1,700th anniversary of 2025) to Trent (1545–1563), Vatican I (1869–1870) and Vatican II (1962–1965); the Synod of Bishops (1965) and the Synod on Synodality (2021–2024; the implementation and the synodal assemblies of 2027–2028) |
| The Jubilees in brief | The Holy Years since Boniface VIII's of 1300 — the ordinary Jubilees every 25 years since 1475 (1950, 1975, 2000, 2025), the extraordinary ones (1933 — the Redemption's 1,900th, 1983, the Mercy of 2015–16); the Jubilee of Hope (24 December 2024 – 6 January 2026; about 33 million pilgrims by the Vatican's count); the next ordinary Jubilee in 2050 and the Redemption's 2,000th of 2033 (by the plans) |
Records
| The smallest state | The world's smallest sovereign state by area (about 0.44–0.49 km², both stated) and by population (764–882 residents, both stated); one of three states enclaved within another (with San Marino and Lesotho); the whole territory a UNESCO World Heritage property (1984); the only state with Latin as an official language of its sovereign (the Holy See) |
|---|---|
| The basilica's records | St. Peter's Basilica — the largest church interior of the world by the usual line (about 15,160 m²; about 220 m long; the nave about 46 m high), the dome of about 136.6 m to the cross's top (the tallest dome of the world by the usual line; the internal diameter about 41.5 m), Michelangelo's Pietà (1498–1499; the only work he signed), Bernini's baldachin (about 29 m — the bronze's largest piece of the Baroque), the 120-plus years of the building (1506–1626) |
| The art's records | The Sistine Chapel's ceiling (about 500 m² of Michelangelo's frescoes; 1508–1512) and the Last Judgment (1536–1541); the Vatican Museums' about 70,000 works (about 20,000 on display) and the about 7 km of the galleries by the usual line; the Raphael Rooms' School of Athens; the Laocoön (found in 1506); the Vatican Apostolic Library's about 80,000–90,000 manuscripts and about 1.6 million printed books (the Codex Vaticanus of the 4th century) |
| The papal records | 267 popes; the longest reign after St. Peter — Pius IX (1846–1878); the longest-lived reigning pope of the modern era — Leo XIII (93; 1903); the first U.S.-born pope (Leo XIV, 2025), the first from the Americas and the first Jesuit (Francis, 2013), the first non-Italian since 1523 (John Paul II, 1978); the most-traveled pope — John Paul II (104 foreign journeys); the first resignation since 1415 (Benedict XVI, 2013) |
| The conclaves' records | The 2025 conclave's 133 electors (the largest ever by the usual line) from about 70 countries; the short modern conclaves of two days (2005, 2013, 2025); the longest — the Viterbo's election of 1268–1271 (about 2 years 9 months; the 'conclave' rule's origin — 'cum clave', locked with a key); the white and the black smoke (the chemicals since 2005) |
| The guards and the security | The Pontifical Swiss Guard (22 January 1506; the world's oldest standing army unit in continuous service by the usual line; about 135 — the Swiss Catholic men; the Sack of Rome's 147 killed of 6 May 1527); the Gendarmerie Corps (the papal police's roots of 1816); the Palatine and the Noble Guards (abolished 1970); the 1981 shooting of John Paul II |
| The firsts of the state | Vatican Radio (1931; Marconi — the first papal broadcast); the Pope's first television appearance (Pius XII, 1949 by the usual line); the first papal tweet (Benedict XVI, 12 December 2012); the solar panels of the Paul VI Hall (2008); the first woman to head the state's administration (Sister Raffaella Petrini, 2025); the first encyclical on the artificial intelligence (Magnifica Humanitas, 2026) |
| The diplomacy's records | The world's oldest diplomatic service by the usual line (the papal legates of the 4th–5th centuries; the permanent nunciatures from the 16th century); the diplomatic relations with about 184 states; the nuncio the dean of the diplomatic corps in many Catholic countries; the mediation of the Beagle Channel dispute between Argentina and Chile (1978–1984); the Cuba–United States thaw's role (2014); the China agreement (2018) |
| The economic records | The Holy See's 2024 surplus of about 1.6 million euros (the first in years by the Secretariat for the Economy's line); APSA's 2025 net assets of 2.686 billion euros and its portfolio's 14.37% return; the Lateran financial convention's 1929 compensation (750 million lire and 1 billion lire in the bonds); the world's highest wine consumption per person by the per-head tables (the small adult population's quirk) |
| The faith's records | The Catholic Church's about 1.42 billion members (2023; about 17.8% of the world by the Church's Statistical Yearbook of 2025, by the reports); the canonizations — John Paul II's 482 saints (the most of any pope by the usual line), Francis's about 900 (the 813 martyrs of Otranto of 2013 among them); the first millennial saint (Carlo Acutis, canonized 7 September 2025); the Jubilee of 2025's about 33 million pilgrims |
| The letters and the archives | The Vatican Apostolic Archive (the Secret Archive's name until 2019 — about 85 km of shelves by the usual line; the Galileo trial's records, Henry VIII's annulment petition of 1530; the Pius XII files opened in 2020); the Vatican Apostolic Library (1475); L'Osservatore Romano (1861); the encyclicals from Benedict XIV's of 1740 by the modern usage; the papal bulls' lead seals |
| The small and the strange | The 'prisoner in the Vatican' (1870–1929); the world's shortest national railway (about 300 m); the Latin ATM; the Vatican's wine record; the SCV plates' Roman jest; the citizenship by the office (lost on leaving the post); the Paul VI Hall's half on Italian soil; the Pope's Fisherman's Ring broken at the death; the Swiss Guard's height rule (1.74 m); the 'sede vacante' stamps and coins of the interregnum |
| The disasters' marks | The Saracens' sack of St. Peter's (846), the Sack of Rome (1527), the French occupation and the popes' captivity (1798–1814), the capture of Rome (1870), the wartime bombs on the Vatican (1943–44), the 1981 shooting, the lightning on the dome (11 February 2013), the pandemic's empty square (2020) |
| The census and the counts | The residents — about 1,000 of the 1930s, about 800–840 of the 2010s, 764 of 2023 and 882 of 2024 by the counts relayed (both stated); the citizens about 450–620 (both stated); the employees about 4,000–5,000 (both stated); the cardinals about 245–255 with about 125–135 electors by the 2026 counts (both stated); the museums' about 6.8–7 million visitors a year (both stated) |
| The Indian links | The Holy See's relations with India since 12 June 1948 (the nunciature in New Delhi); Paul VI's Bombay Eucharistic Congress (December 1964 — the first papal journey to Asia), John Paul II's visits (1986 and 1999), the canonizations of the Indian saints (Alphonsa of 2008, Mother Teresa of Kolkata on 4 September 2016, Devasahayam Pillai of 2022 — the first Indian lay saint), the Indian cardinals of the 2025 conclave (four electors by the usual count), the Indian Prime Minister's meetings with the popes (2021, 2024) |
| The last and the next | The journey to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru planned for 6–17 November 2026 (the Pope's first return to Peru as Pope, by the plans); the synodal assemblies of 2027–2028; World Youth Day in Seoul (2027); the International Eucharistic Congress of Sydney (24 September – 1 October 2028); the 2033 Jubilee of the Redemption's 2,000th; the next ordinary Jubilee in 2050; the Becciu retrial's verdict ahead |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Vatican City?
The Vatican City State (Stato della Città del Vaticano; Status Civitatis Vaticanae in Latin) — the sovereign territory created by the Lateran Treaty of 11 February 1929 between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy (in force on 7 June 1929); distinct from the Holy See (Sancta Sedes — the Pope's universal government of the Catholic Church, the subject of the international law that holds the diplomatic relations with about 184 states and the UN's permanent observer seat since 1964); the Papal States (756–1870) before it; the demonym Vatican; no UN membership (the Holy See's observer status of 2004's enhanced rights).
What is the capital of Vatican City?
Vatican City itself — the city-state is its own capital (the world's only walled state within a city: an enclave of Rome, Italy); the Apostolic Palace (the Pope's official residence; Leo XIV's return to the papal apartment of 2025 by the reports), the Governorate Palace (1931), St. Peter's Basilica (1506–1626) and St. Peter's Square (Bernini's colonnade of 1656–1667), the Sistine Chapel (1473–1481), the Vatican Museums, the Vatican Gardens; the extraterritorial properties of the Holy See in Rome — the Lateran (the Pope's cathedral as the Bishop of Rome), St. Mary Major, St. Paul Outside the Walls — and the papal villa of Castel Gandolfo (about 55 ha).
How big is Vatican City, and how many people live there?
About 0.44 km² (44 hectares; about 109 acres) by the usual measure — about 0.49 km² by another (both stated) — the world's smallest sovereign state by both area and population; the border with Italy about 3.2 km (the Leonine walls and the square's travertine line); 882 residents of 2024 and 764 of 2023 by the counts relayed (both stated) — the citizens about 450–620 by the different counts (both stated; the cardinals living in Rome, the diplomats of the Holy See abroad, the Swiss Guards and the clergy and the lay staff); about 4,000–5,000 employees commuting from Rome.
What are the highest and lowest points of Vatican City?
The Vatican Hill's top in the gardens near the Vatican Radio's old tower and the Leonine wall — about 75–78 m above sea level by the surveys (both stated; the dome of St. Peter's rising to about 136.6 m above the square's pavement — the tallest structure); the lowest point about 19–33 m by the counts (both stated) at the Piazza San Pietro's eastern edge near the Tiber's plain; the necropolis below the basilica (the Scavi — St. Peter's tomb's excavations of 1939–1949).
What currency does Vatican City use?
The euro (EUR; €; 100 cents) — by the Monetary Agreement with the European Union of 17 December 2009 (in force on 1 January 2010; the first of 2000 before it) — the Vatican's own euro coins (the face of the Pope — Francis's of 2014–2025 and the 'sede vacante' coins of 2025, then the Leo XIV coins of 2026 by the Philatelic and Numismatic Office) and the collectors' sets, minted by the Italian State Mint (Rome); the Vatican lira (1929–2001) before it, at par with the Italian lira; about 1.15–1.18 U.S. dollars to the euro and about 100–104 Indian rupees to the euro by the 2026 quotes (both stated); no central bank — the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR; the 'Vatican Bank', 1942) and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA).
Who governs Vatican City?
Pope Leo XIV (Robert Francis Prevost — born 14 September 1955 in Chicago; the first pope from the United States and the first of the Order of St. Augustine by the usual line; the U.S. and the Peruvian citizen (Peru's of 2015); the Bishop of Chiclayo of 2015–2023 and the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops of 2023–2025) — elected on 8 May 2025 on the conclave's fourth ballot (133 electors) and inaugurated on 18 May 2025; the sovereign with the full legislative, executive and judicial powers (the Fundamental Law of 13 May 2023); the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State and its President Sister Raffaella Petrini (since 1 March 2025 — the first woman); for the Holy See — the Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin (since 2013); the Camerlengo Cardinal Kevin Farrell.
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