Italy (officially: La Republica Italiana), is a republic in southern Europe. The total area of Italy is 301,323 square kilometers, and is thus more than seven times as big as the Netherlands. The distance from north to south is about 1200 kilometers. From east to west, however, the distances but between 54 and 170 kilometers.
In the northwest bordering Italy to France (488 km), in the north to Switzerland (740 km) and Austria (430 km) and in the northeast of Slovenia (232 km). The basins of the Mediterranean Sea that wash the country, called on the west Ligurian Sea (at Riviera) and Tyrrhenian Sea (between Italy and Sardinia), on the south side Ionian Sea (east of Sicily) and on the east side Adriatic Sea. Halfway through Rome and Naples is the border between the south, also known as the Mezzogiorno, and the center and north of Italy. The total coastline is approximately 7600 kilometers, including the 3766 big and small islands that belong to Italy. The most southerly point of the country is the island of Lampedusa, closer to the North African Tunisia than to Italy. Within the geographical borders of Italy are the independent republic of San Marino and the sovereign state of Vatican City. San Marino, located in the eastern part of the peninsula, is the world's oldest republic, founded in the fourth century. The total area covers 62 km2 and its population is approximately 24,000. Vatican City, from which the Roman Catholic Church is governed, has a total area of only 44 hectares. Vatican City is the smallest state in the world where about 200 people permanently living and daily about 800 people come to work. The state has its own legal system, shopping, banking, currency, post office, radio station and newspaper, the Osservatore Romano. The official language is Latin.
The population of Italy was formed from the amalgamation of various peoples and includes Etruscan, Gallic, Italic, Punic and Germanic elements. In late 19th and early 20th century, the rapid growth of the Italian population to a large emigration wave. The Northern Italians withdrew mainly to central and western Europe, central and southern Italians left for the United States, Brazil and (especially) Argentina. However after many emigrants turned a number of years back to their homeland. In the thirties is the emigration reduced. After the Second World War took it again, albeit to a much lesser extent. Since 1983, however, exceeds the immigration emigration. 1860 and 1973 between 26 million Italians emigrated to other countries, particularly to North and South America.
The illegal immigration across southern Italian ports and beaches, including those from Albania and Turkey, is still significant. In April 2000, the Italian and Albanian government signed an agreement on the annual admission of 5,000 Albanians in Italy. In addition to the emigration has at the time of heady economic growth after the Second World War, a vast internal migration occurred, a part of the rural population, especially in the south, is left mainly to the industrial areas of Turin, Genoa and Milan in the north. Naples and Rome also attracted hundreds of thousands of migrants. At this moment I have only small numbers, because the demand for unskilled labor has declined significantly.
The population of Italy is approximately 57 million. The population density is approximately 188 inhabitants per km2. The areas around the big cities have the highest population density. Ca. 18% of the population lives in cities of more than 350,000 inhabitants.
In Lombardy, Campania and Lazio live large parts of the population (respectively 15.6%, 9.9% and 9.1% of the population) Molise and Valle d'Aosta hostels hand, a much smaller proportion of the population (respectively 0 , 6% and 0.2%). In 1995, lived 36% of the total population in the south of Italy.
Until the seventies, Italy had a strong natural population growth. In the period from 1986 to 1988, the birth rate averaged 9.9 per thousand and the mortality rate 9.4 per thousand, resulting in a natural population growth of 0.5 in 1000 inhabitants was. In the period from 1990 to 1995, the Italian population by 0.1 percent per year growth. The expectation is that the natural population growth in the period from 1998 to 2015 -0.3% per year. In the poor rural south, the birth rate much higher than in the prosperous industrial north. Here the population is also much more influenced by the ideas of the Roman Catholic Church. The population is also growing older in 1991 was only 16% younger than 15 years, preferably half the population was aged over 45 years. The life expectancy at birth in 1997 was 75.2% for males and 81.3 years for women.