Italy

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National name: Repubblica Italiana

Current government officials

Languages: Italian (official); German-, French-, and Slovene-speaking minorities

Ethnicity/race: Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and Slovene-Italians in the north and Albanian- and Greek-Italians in the south)

Religions: Christian 80% (overwhelming Roman Catholic with very small groups of Jehova Witnesses and Protestants), Muslims NEGL (about 700,000 but growing), Atheists and Agnostics 20%

National Holiday: Republic Day, June 2

Literacy rate: 99% (2003 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2011 est.): $1.871 trillion; per capita $30,900. Real growth rate: 0.4%. Inflation: 2.8%. Unemployment: 8.4%. Arable land: 26.41%. Agriculture: fruits, vegetables, grapes, potatoes, sugar beets, soybeans, grain, olives; beef, dairy products; fish. Labor force: 25.08 million; services 67.8%, industry 28.3%, agriculture 5% (2001). Industries: tourism, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, food processing, textiles, motor vehicles, clothing, footwear, ceramics. Natural resources: coal, mercury, zinc, potash, marble, barite, asbestos, pumice, fluorospar, feldspar, pyrite (sulfur), natural gas and crude oil reserves, fish, arable land. Exports: $522 billion (2011 est.): engineering products, textiles and clothing, production machinery, motor vehicles, transport equipment, chemicals; food, beverages and tobacco; minerals, and nonferrous metals. Imports: $556.4 billion (2011 est.): engineering products, chemicals, transport equipment, energy products, minerals and nonferrous metals, textiles and clothing; food, beverages, and tobacco. Major trading partners: Germany, France, U.S., Spain, UK, Switzerland, Netherlands, China (2011).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 21.6million (2009); mobile cellular: 82 million (2009). Broadcast media: two Italian media giants dominate - the publicly-owned Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) with 3 national terrestrial stations and privately-owned Mediaset with 3 national terrestrial stations; a large number of private stations and Sky Italia - a satellite TV network; RAI operates 3 AM/FM nationwide radio stations; some 1,300 commercial radio stations (2007). Internet hosts: 25.456 million (2010). Internet users: 29.235 million (2009).

Transportation: Railways: total: 20,255 km (2008). Roadways: total: 487,700 km; paved: 487,700 km (including 6,700 km of expressways) (2007). Waterways: 2,400 km; note: used for commercial traffic; of limited overall value compared to road and rail (2012). Ports and terminals: Augusta, Cagliari, Genoa, Livorno, Taranto, Trieste, Venice oil terminals: Melilli (Santa Panagia) oil terminal, Sarroch oil terminal.

International disputes: Italy's long coastline and developed economy entices tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from southeastern Europe and northern Africa.

Major sources and definitions