Profile
Background and figures as recorded in the CIA World Factbook.
Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the regional states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI established a Fascist dictatorship. His alliance with Nazi Germany led to Italy's defeat in World War II. A democratic republic replaced the monarchy in 1946, and economic revival followed. Italy is a charter member of NATO, as well as the European Economic Community (EEC) and its successors, the EC and the EU.
- Capital
- Rome
- Government
- parliamentary republic
- Population
- 60,924,851
- Area
- 301,340 sq km
- Location
- Southern Europe, a peninsula extending into the central Mediterranean Sea, northeast of Tunisia
- Climate
- predominantly Mediterranean; alpine in far north; hot, dry in south
- Natural resources
- coal; antimony; mercury; zinc; potash; marble…
- Languages
- Italian (official); German (parts of Trentino-Alto Adige region are predominantly German-speaking); French (small French-speaking minority in Valle d'Aosta region); Slovene (Slovene-speaking minority in the Trieste-Gorizia area)…
- Religions
- Christian 80.8% (overwhelmingly Roman Catholic with very small groups of Jehovah's Witnesses and Protestants); Muslim 4.9%; unaffiliated 13.4%; other 0.9%
- Independence
- 17 March 1861
- Administrative divisions
- 15 regions (regioni, singular - regione) and 5 autonomous regions (regioni autonome, singular - regione autonoma) region…
- Currency
- euros (EUR)
- Export partners
- Germany 11%; USA 11%; France 10%; Spain 5%…
- Import partners
- Germany 15%; France 9%; China 8%; Netherlands 6%…
Source: CIA World Factbook — a work of the US government, in the public domain