Demographics of Italy

Population 1960–2006. Number of inhabitants in thousands.

Historical populations
Year	Pop.	±%
1861	22,182,377	—
1871	27,303,509	+23.1%
1881	28,953,480	+6.0%
1901	32,965,504	+13.9%
1911	35,845,048	+8.7%
1921	39,943,528	+11.4%
1931	41,651,000	+4.3%
1936	42,943,602	+3.1%
1951	47,515,537	+10.6%
1961	50,623,569	+6.5%
1971	54,136,547	+6.9%
1981	56,556,911	+4.5%
1991	56,778,031	+0.4%
2001	56,995,744	+0.4%
2011	60,681,514	+6.5%
Source: ISTAT 2001

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Italy, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Italy has 60,626,442 inhabitants according to 1/1/2011 municipal records (Anagrafe). Its population density, at 201/km² (520/sq. mile), is higher than that of most Western European countries. However the distribution of the population is widely uneven. The most densely populated areas are the Po Valley (that accounts for almost a half of the national population) and the metropolitan areas of Rome and Naples, while vast regions such as the Alps and Appennines highlands, the plateaus of Basilicata and the island of Sardinia are very sparsely populated.

The population of Italy almost doubled during the twentieth century, but the pattern of growth was extremely uneven due to large-scale internal migration from the rural South to the industrial cities of the North, a phenomenon which happened as a consequence of the Italian economic miracle of the 1950-60s. In addition, after centuries of net emigration, from the 1980s Italy has experienced large-scale immigration for the first time in modern history. According to the Italian government, there were 4,570,317 foreign residents in Italy as of January 2011.

High fertility and birth rates persisted until the 1970s, after which they started to dramatically decline, leading to rapid population aging. At the end of the 2000s, one in five Italians was over 65 years old. However, thanks mainly to the massive immigration of the last two decades, in recent years Italy experienced a significant growth in birth rates. The total fertility rate has also climbed from an all-time low of 1.18 children per woman in 1995 to 1.41 in 2008.

Italy has no official religion. The 1984 Lateran Treaty revision abolished the Roman Catholic Church as the official state religion, while recognizing the role it plays in Italian society. 87.8% of the population define themselves as Catholic, 5.8% as non-believers or atheists, and 6.4% other religions, of which 2.6% Islam.

Urbanization

See also: Metropolitan areas in Italy and List of cities in Italy by population

About 68% of Italian population is classified as urban, a relatively low figure among developed countries. During the last two decades, Italy underwent a devolution process, that eventually led to the creation of administrative metropolitan areas, in order to give major cities and their metropolitan areas a provincial status (somehow similar to PRC's direct-controlled municipality). However, none of these new local authorities has yet become fully operative. According to OECD, the largest conurbations are:

• Milan – 7.4 million
• Rome – 3.7 million
• Naples – 3.1 million
• Turin – 2.2 million

Ethnic groups

Main article: Immigration to Italy

Little Italy in New York, ca.1900.

Italy used to be a country of mass emigration from the late 19th century until the 1970s. Between 1898 and 1914, the peak years of Italian diaspora, approximately 750,000 Italians emigrated each year. Italian communities once thrived in the former African colonies of Eritrea (nearly 100,000 at the beginning of World War II), Somalia and Libya (150,000 Italians settled in Libya, constituting about 18% of the total population). All of Libya's Italians were expelled from the North African country in 1970. In addition, after the communist occupation of Istria in 1945, up to 350,000 ethnic Italians left Titoist Yugoslavia. Today, large numbers of people with full or significant Italian ancestry are found in Brazil (25 million), Argentina (20 million), US (17.8 million), France (5 million), Uruguay (1.5 million), Canada (1.4 million), Venezuela (900,000) and Australia (800,000).

As a result of the profound economic and social changes induced by postwar industrialization, including low birth rates, an aging population and thus a shrinking workforce, during the 1980s Italy became to attract rising flows of foreign immigrants. The present-day figure of about 4.6 million foreign residents, that make up some 8% of the total population, include more than half a million children born in Italy to foreign nationals—second generation immigrants, but exclude foreign nationals who have subsequently acquired Italian nationality; this applied to 53,696 people in 2008. The official figures also exclude illegal immigrants, the so-called clandestini, whose numbers are very difficult to determine. In May 2008 The Boston Globe quoted an estimate of 670,000 for this group. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and more recently, the 2004 and 2007 enlargements of the European Union, the main waves of migration came from the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe (especially Romania, Albania, Ukraine and Poland). The second most important area of immigration to Italy has always been the neighbouring North Africa (in particular, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia), with soaring arrivals as a consequence of the Arab Spring. Furthermore, in recent years, growing migration fluxes from the Far East (notably, China and the Philippines) and Latin America (Ecuador, Peru) have been recorded. Currently, more than one million Romanians (around one tenth of them being Roma) are officially registered as living in Italy, representing thus the most important individual country of origin, followed by Albanians and Moroccans with about 500,000 people each. The number of unregistered Romanians is difficult to estimate, but the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network suggested that in 2007 that there might have been half a million or more. Overall, at the end of 2000s the foreign born population of Italy was from: Europe (54%), Africa (22%), Asia (16%), the Americas (8%) and Oceania (0.06%). The distribution of immigrants is largely uneven in Italy: 87% of immigrants live in the northern and central parts of the country (the most economically developed areas), while only 13% live in the southern half of the peninsula.

Estimated foreign-born population by country of birth, 2006 figures.

Origin of the population

Origin	Population	Percent
Italian	&1000000005581809900000055,818,099	92.00%
Romanian	&100000000017000000000001,700,000	3.08%
North African	&10000000000646624000000646,624	1.07%
Albanian	&10000000000466684000000466,684	0.77%
Chinese	&10000000000188352000000188,352	0.28%
Ukrainian	&10000000000153998000000153,998	0.31%
Asian (non-Chinese)	&10000000000499013000000499,013	0.83%
Sub-Saharan Africa	&10000000000324917000000324,917	0.54%
Latin American	&10000000000285169000000285,169	0.47%
Other	&10000000000782549000000782,549	1.29%

Languages

Main article: Languages of Italy

"Italophone" world. Dark blue:official language; green: secondary, widely spoken or understood; light blue: understood by some due to former colonisation.

Italy's official language is Italian. Ethnologue has estimated that there are about 55 million speakers of the language in Italy and a further 6.7 million outside of the country. However, between 120 and 150 million people use Italian as a second or cultural language, worldwide.

Italian, adopted by the state after the unification of Italy, is based on the Florentine variety of Tuscan and is somewhat intermediate between the Italo-Dalmatian languages and the Gallo-Romance languages. Its development was also influenced by the Germanic languages of the post-Roman invaders.

Italy has numerous dialects spoken all over the country. However, the establishment of a national education system has led to decrease in variation in the languages spoken across the country. Standardisation was further expanded in the 1950s and 1960s thanks to economic growth and the rise of mass media and television (the state broadcaster RAI helped set a standard Italian).

Several ethnic groups are legally recognized, and a number of minority languages have co-official status alongside Italian in various parts of the country. French is co-official in the Valle d’Aosta—although in fact Franco-Provencal is more commonly spoken there. German has the same status in the province of South Tyrol as, in some parts of that province and in parts of the neighbouring Trentino, does Ladin. Slovene is officially recognised in the provinces of Trieste, Gorizia and Udine in Venezia Giulia.

In these regions official documents are bilingual (trilingual in Ladin communities), or available upon request in either Italian or the co-official language. Traffic signs are also multilingual, except in the Valle d’Aosta where—with the exception of Aosta itself which has retained its Latin form in Italian as in English—French toponyms are generally used, attempts to Italianise them during the Fascist period having been abandoned. Education is possible in minority languages where such schools are operating.

Vital statistics since 1900

	Average population (x 1000)	Live births	Deaths	Natural change	Crude birth rate (per 1000)	Crude death rate (per 1000)	Natural change (per 1000)	Fertility rates
1900	32 377	1 067 376	768 917	298 459	33.0	23.7	9.2
1901	32 550	1 057 763	715 036	342 727	32.5	22.0	10.5
1902	32 787	1 093 074	727 181	365 893	33.3	22.2	11.2
1903	33 004	1 042 090	736 311	305 779	31.6	22.3	9.3
1904	33 237	1 085 431	698 604	386 827	32.7	21.0	11.6
1905	33 489	1 084 518	730 340	354 178	32.4	21.8	10.6
1906	33 718	1 070 978	696 875	374 103	31.8	20.7	11.1
1907	33 952	1 062 333	700 333	362 000	31.3	20.6	10.7
1908	34 198	1 138 813	770 054	368 759	33.3	22.5	10.8
1909	34 455	1 115 831	738 460	377 371	32.4	21.4	11.0
1910	34 751	1 144 410	682 459	461 951	32.9	19.6	13.3
1911	35 033	1 093 545	742 811	350 734	31.2	21.2	10.0
1912	35 246	1 133 985	635 788	498 197	32.2	18.0	14.1
1913	35 351	1 122 482	663 966	458 516	31.8	18.8	13.0
1914	35 701	1 114 091	643 355	470 736	31.2	18.0	13.2
1915	36 271	1 109 183	809 703	299 480	30.6	22.3	8.3
1916	36 481	881 626	854 703	26 923	24.2	23.4	0.7
1917	36 343	713 732	948 710	-234 978	19.6	26.1	-6.5
1918	35 922	655 353	1 268 290	-612 937	18.2	35.3	-17.1
1919	35 717	770 620	676 329	94 291	21.6	18.9	2.6
1920	35 960	1 158 041	681 749	476 292	32.2	19.0	13.2
1921	37 869	1 163 344	670 234	493 110	30.7	17.7	13.0
1922	38 196	1 175 834	690 054	485 780	30.8	18.1	12.7
1923	38 571	1 155 157	654 827	500 330	29.9	17.0	13.0
1924	38 927	1 124 650	663 077	461 573	28.9	17.0	11.9
1925	39 265	1 108 565	669 695	438 870	28.2	17.1	11.2
1926	39 590	1 094 666	680 274	414 392	27.7	17.2	10.5
1927	39 926	1 093 772	639 843	453 929	27.4	16.0	11.4
1928	40 281	1 072 316	645 654	426 662	26.6	16.0	10.6
1929	40 607	1 037 700	667 223	370 477	25.6	16.4	9.1
1930	40 956	1 092 678	576 751	515 927	26.7	14.1	12.6
1931	41 339	1 026 197	609 405	416 792	24.8	14.7	10.1
1932	41 584	990 995	610 646	380 349	23.8	14.7	9.1
1933	41 928	995 979	574 113	421 866	23.8	13.7	10.1
1934	42 277	992 966	563 339	429 627	23.5	13.3	10.2
1935	42 631	996 708	594 722	401 986	23.4	14.0	9.4
1936	42 965	962 686	593 380	369 306	22.4	13.8	8.6
1937	43 269	991 867	618 290	373 577	22.9	14.3	8.6
1938	43 596	1 037 180	614 988	422 192	23.8	14.1	9.7
1939	44 018	1 040 213	591 483	448 730	23.6	13.4	10.2
1940	44 467	1 046 479	606 907	439 572	23.5	13.6	9.9
1941	44 830	937 546	621 735	315 811	20.9	13.9	7.0
1942	45 098	926 063	643 607	282 456	20.5	14.3	6.3
1943	44 641	885 300	679 708	205 592	19.8	15.2	4.6
1944	44 794	817 704	685 171	132 533	18.3	15.3	3.0
1945	44 946	817 812	615 092	202 720	18.2	13.7	4.5
1946	45 253	1 039 432	547 952	491 480	23.0	12.1	10.9
1947	45 641	1 014 712	524 019	490 693	22.2	11.5	10.8
1948	46 381	1 009 299	490 450	518 849	21.8	10.6	11.2
1949	46 733	940 293	485 277	455 016	20.1	10.4	9.7
1950	47 104	911 805	455 169	456 636	19.4	9.7	9.7
1951	47 417	863 849	485 208	378 641	18.2	10.2	8.0
1952	47 666	847 354	477 894	369 460	17.8	10.0	7.8
1953	47 957	842 274	476 015	366 259	17.6	9.9	7.6
1954	48 299	870 689	441 897	428 792	18.0	9.1	8.9
1955	48 633	869 333	446 689	422 644	17.9	9.2	8.7
1956	48 920	873 608	497 550	376 058	17.9	10.2	7.7
1957	49 181	878 906	484 190	394 716	17.9	9.8	8.0
1958	49 475	870 468	457 690	412 778	17.6	9.3	8.3
1959	49 831	901 017	454 740	446 277	18.1	9.1	9.0
1960	50 198	910 192	480 932	429 260	18.1	9.6	8.6	2,41
1961	50 523	929 657	468 455	461 202	18.4	9.3	9.1	2,41
1962	50 843	937 257	509 174	428 083	18.4	10.0	8.4	2,46
1963	51 198	960 336	516 377	443 959	18.8	10.1	8.7	2,55
1964	51 600	1 016 120	490 050	526 070	19.7	9.5	10.2	2,70
1965	51 987	990 458	518 008	472 450	19.1	10.0	9.1	2,67
1966	52 332	979 940	496 281	483 659	18.7	9.5	9.2	2,63
1967	52 667	948 772	510 122	438 650	18.0	9.7	8.3	2,54
1968	52 987	930 172	532 571	397 601	17.6	10.1	7.5	2,50
1969	53 317	932 466	539 129	393 337	17.5	10.1	7.4	2,51
1970	53 661	901 472	521 096	380 376	16.8	9.7	7.1	2,43
1971	54 074	906 182	522 654	383 528	16.8	9.7	7.1	2,41
1972	54 381	888 203	523 828	364 375	16.3	9.6	6.7	2,36
1973	54 751	874 546	547 487	327 059	16.0	10.0	6.0	2,34
1974	55 111	868 882	532 052	336 830	15.8	9.7	6.1	2,33
1975	55 441	827 852	554 346	273 506	14.9	10.0	4.9	2,21
1976	55 718	781 638	550 565	231 073	14.0	9.9	4.1	2,11
1977	55 955	741 103	546 694	194 409	13.2	9.8	3.5	1,98
1978	56 155	709 043	540 671	168 372	12.6	9.6	3.0	1,87
1979	56 318	670 221	538 352	131 869	11.9	9.6	2.3	1,76
1980	56 434	640 401	554 510	85 891	11.3	9.8	1.5	1,64
1981	56 502	623 103	545 291	77 812	11.0	9.7	1.4	1,62
1982	56 544	617 507	522 332	95 175	10.9	9.2	1.7	1,59
1983	56 564	600 218	553 568	46 650	10.6	9.8	0.8	1,52
1984	56 577	587 871	534 676	53 195	10.4	9.5	0.9	1,46
1985	56 593	577 345	547 436	29 909	10.2	9.7	0.5	1,41
1986	56 596	554 845	537 453	17 392	9.8	9.5	0.3	1,35
1987	56 602	552 329	524 999	27 330	9.8	9.3	0.5	1,30
1988	56 629	569 698	539 426	30 272	10.1	9.5	0.5	1,32
1989	56 672	560 688	525 960	34 728	9.8	9.3	0.5	1,29
1990	56 719	563 019	543 708	19 311	9.9	9.5	0.5	1,27
1991	56 751	562 787	553 833	8 954	9.9	9.8	0.2	1,28
1992	56 797	575 216	545 038	30 178	10.1	9.6	0.5	1,36
1993	56 832	552 587	555 043	-2 456	9.7	9.8	-0.0	1,24
1994	56 843	536 665	557 513	-20 848	9.4	9.8	-0.4	1,23
1995	56 844	526 064	555 203	-29 139	9.3	9.8	-0.5	1,18
1996	56 860	536 740	557 756	-21 016	9.4	9.8	-0.4	1,23
1997	56 890	540 048	564 679	-24 631	9.5	9.9	-0.4	1,26
1998	56 907	532 843	576 911	-44 068	9.4	10.1	-0.8	1,24
1999	56 917	537 242	571 356	-34 114	9.4	10.0	-0.6	1,23
2000	56 942	543 039	560 241	-17 202	9.5	9.8	-0.3	1,25
2001	56 977	535 264	548 227	-12 963	9.4	9.6	-0.2	1,27
2002	57 158	538 198	557 393	-19 195	9.4	9.8	-0.3	1,29
2003	57 605	544 063	588 897	-44 834	9.4	10.2	-0.8	1,33
2004	58 175	562 599	545 050	17 549	9.7	9.4	0.3	1,33
2005	58 607	554 022	568 328	-14 306	9.5	9.7	-0.2	1,32
2006	58 942	560 010	560 875	- 865	9.5	9.5	-0.0	1,35
2007	59 375	563 933	573 026	-9 093	9.5	9.7	-0.2	1,37
2008	59 832	576 659	585 126	-8 467	9.6	9.8	-0.1	1,42
2009	60 193	568 857	591 663	-22 806	9.5	9.8	-0.4	1,41
2010	60 626	561 944	587 488	-25 544	9.3	9.7	-0.4	1,41

Religion

Main article: Religion in Italy

Religion in Italy
Religion			Percent
Christianity			91.6%
None			5.8%
Islam			2.6%
Buddhism			0.3%
Hinduism			0.2%
Sikhism			0.12%
Judaism			0.1%

Roman Catholicism is by far the largest religion in the country, although the Catholic Church is no longer officially the state religion. Fully 87.8% of Italy's population identified themselves as Roman Catholic, although only about one-third of these described themselves as active members (36.8%).

Most Italians believe in God, or a form of a spiritual life force. According to the most recent Eurobarometer Poll 2005: 74% of Italian citizens responded that 'they believe there is a God', 16% answered that 'they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force' and 6% answered that 'they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God, or life force'.

Christianity

The Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence, which has the biggest brick dome in the world, and is considered a masterpiece of Italian architecture.

The Italian Catholic Church is part of the global Roman Catholic Church, under the leadership of the Pope, curia in Rome, and the Conference of Italian Bishops. In addition to Italy, two other sovereign nations are included in Italian-based dioceses, San Marino and Vatican City. There are 225 dioceses in the Italian Catholic Church, see further in this article and in the article List of the Roman Catholic dioceses in Italy. Even though by law Vatican City is not part of Italy, it is in Rome, and along with Latin, Italian is the most spoken and second language of the Roman Curia.

Italy has a rich Catholic culture, especially as numerous Catholic saints, martyrs and popes were Italian themselves. Roman Catholic art in Italy especially flourished during the Middle-Ages, Renaissance and Baroque periods, with numerous Italian artists, such as Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Caravaggio, Fra Angelico, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Sandro Botticelli, Tintoretto, Titian, Raphael and Giotto. Roman Catholic architecture in Italy is equally as rich and impressive, with churches, basilicas and cathedrals such as St Peter's Basilica, Florence Cathedral and St Mark's Basilica. Roman Catholicism is the largest religion and denomination in Italy, with around 87.8% of Italians considering themselves Catholic. Italy is also home to the greatest number of cardinals in the world, and is the country with the greatest number of Roman Catholic churches per capita.

Even though the main Christian denomination in Italy is Roman Catholicism, there are some minorities of Protestant, Waldensian, Eastern Orthodox and other Christian churches.

In the 20th century, Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentecostalism, non-denominational Evangelicalism, and Mormonism were the fastest-growing Protestant churches. Immigration from Western, Central, and Eastern Africa at the beginning of the 21st century has increased the size of Baptist, Anglican, Pentecostal and Evangelical communities in Italy, while immigration from Eastern Europe has produced large Eastern Orthodox communities.

In 2006, Protestants made up 2.1% of Italy's population, and members of Eastern Orthodox churches comprised 1.2%. Other Christian groups in Italy include more than 700,000 Eastern Orthodox Christians including 180,000 Greek Orthodox, 550,000 Pentecostals and Evangelists (0.8%), of whom 400,000 are members of the Assemblies of God, 245,657 Jehovah's Witnesses (0.4%), 30,000 Waldensians, 25,000 Seventh-day Adventists, 22,000 Mormons, 15,000 Baptists (plus some 5,000 Free Baptists), 7,000 Lutherans, 4,000 Methodists (affiliated with the Waldensian Church).

Other religions

The longest-established religious faith in Italy is Judaism, Jews having been present in Ancient Rome before the birth of Christ. Italy has seen many influential Italian-Jews, such as Luigi Luzzatti, who took office in 1910, Ernesto Nathan served as mayor of Rome from 1907 to 1913 and Shabbethai Donnolo (died 982). During the Holocaust, Italy took in many Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. However, with the creation of the Nazi-backed puppet Italian Social Republic, about 15% of Italy's Jews were killed, despite the Fascist government's refusal to deport Jews to Nazi death camps. This, together with the emigration that preceded and followed the Second World War, has left only a small community of around 45,000 Jews in Italy today.

Due to immigration from around the world, there has been an increase in non-Christian faiths. In 2009, there were 1.0 million Muslims in Italy forming 1.6 percent of population although, only 50,000 hold Italian citizenship. Independent estimates put the Islamic population in Italy anywhere from 0.8 million to 1.5 million.

There are more than 200,000 followers of faith originating in the Indian subcontinent worth some 70,000 Sikhs with 22 gurdwaras across the country, 70,000 Hindus, and 50,000 Buddhists. There are an estimated some 4,900 Bahá'ís in Italy in 2005.

Demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from Italy's Istituto Nazionale di Statistica and Cia World Factbook.

Population

60,626,442 (2011 est.)

Age structure

0-14 years: 13.5% (male 4,056,156/female 3,814,070)

15-64 years: 66.3% (male 19,530,696/female 18,981,084)

65 years and over: 20.2% (male 4,903,762/female 6,840,444) (2010 est.)

Sex ratio

at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female

under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female

total population: 0.96 male(s)/female

(2004 est.)

Infant mortality rate

total: 5.51 deaths/1,000 live births

male: 6.07 deaths/1,000 live births

female: 4.91 deaths/1,000 live births

(2009 est.)

Total fertility rate

1.41 children born/woman (2010)

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 81.8 years (2010)

male: 79.2 years (2010)

female: 84.4 years (2010)

HIV/AIDS

Adult prevalence rate: 0.4% (2009 est.)

People living with HIV/AIDS: 150,000 (2007 est.)

Deaths: 1,900 (2007 est.)

Nationality

noun: Italian(s)

adjective: Italian

Ethnic groups

Italian: 92%, other European (mostly Romanian, Albanian, Ukrainian and others) 4%, North African (mostly Berber) 1%, others 2.5%

Religions

Roman Catholic: 87% (approximately; one third practicing), other Christians: 2%, Muslim: 1.8%, Atheist or Agnostic: 9%

Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 98.6%

male:

(2003 est.)

Genetics

Genealogical tree of Y chromosome haplogroups with main Italian ones highlighted in green

The overwhelming majority of Italian males belong to the Y-DNA haplogroup R1b which is standard amongst most west European populations. According to data found through different sources, samples, and studies by Eurpedia, the percentages of Y-dna haplogroups observed were :

• R1 (51.5% : 49% R1b and 2.5% R1a)
• J (20% : 18% J2 and 2% J1)
• E1b1b (11%)
• G (7%)
• I (6.5% : 2.5% I1, 3% I2 + I2a and 1% I2b)
• T (4%)

See also

• List of Italians
• Italian diaspora

External links

• Demographic page (English)
• Demographic Profile Italy Allianz Knowledge