Background: Italy failed to secure political unification until the 1860s, thus lacking the military and imperial power of Spain, Britain, and France. The fascist dictatorship of MUSSOLINI after World War I, led to the disastrous alliance with HITLER's Germany and defeat in World War II. Italy was a founding member of the European Economic Community (EEC) and joined in the growing political and economic unification of Western Europe. On-going problems include illegal immigration, the ravages of organized crime, high unemployment, and the low incomes and technical standards of Southern Italy compared with the North.

Geographic coordinates: 42 50 N, 12 50 E

Map reference: Europe

Area
Total: 301,230 km²
Land: 294,020 km²
Water: 7,210 km²
Note: includes Sardinia and Sicily
Comparative: slightly larger than Arizona

Land boundaries
Total: 1,932.2 km
Border countries: (5) Austria 430 km; , France 488 km; , Holy See (Vatican City) 3.2 km; , San Marino 39 km; , Slovenia 232 km; , Switzerland 740 km

Coastline: 7,600 km

Maritime claims
Continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
Territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate: predominantly Mediterranean; Alpine in far north; hot, dry in south

Terrain: mostly rugged and mountainous; some plains, coastal lowlands

Elevation
Extremes lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
Extremes highest point: Mont Blanc 4,807 m

Natural resources: mercury, potash, marble, sulfur, dwindling natural gas and crude oil reserves, fish, coal

Land use
Arable land: 31%
Permanent crops: 10%
Permanent pastures: 15%
Forests and woodland: 23%
Other: 21% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land: 27,100 km² (1993 est.)

Natural hazards: regional risks include landslides, mudflows, avalanches, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, flooding; land subsidence in Venice

Geography
Note: strategic location dominating central Mediterranean as well as southern sea and air approaches to Western Europe

Population: 56,782,748 (July 1998 est.)
Growth rate: -0.08% (1998 est.)

Nationality
Noun: Italian(s)
Adjective: Italian

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

Languages: Italian, 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: Roman Catholic 98%, other 2%

Age structure
0-14 years: 14% (male 4,192,662; female 3,955,857)
15-64 years: 68% (male 19,265,714; female 19,369,554)
65 years and over: 18% (male 4,098,526; female 5,900,435) (July 1998 est.)

Population growth rate: -0.08% (1998 est.)

Birth rate: 9.13 births/1000 population (1998 est.)

Death rate: 10.18 deaths/1000 population (1998 est.)

Net migration rate: 0.21 migrant(s)/1000 population (1998 est.)

Environment
Current issues: air pollution from industrial emissions such as sulfur dioxide; coastal and inland rivers polluted from industrial and agricultural effluents; acid rain damaging lakes; inadequate industrial waste treatment and disposal facilities
International agreements party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Wetlands, Whaling
International agreements signed but not ratified: Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Tropical Timber 94

Sex ratio
At birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
Under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female (1998 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 6.4 deaths/1000 live births (1998 est.)

Life expectancy at birth
Total population: 78.38 years
Male: 75.26 years
Female: 81.7 years (1998 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.19 children born/woman (1998 est.)

Literacy
Definition: age 15 and over can read and write
Total population: 97%
Male: 98%
Female: 96% (1990 est.)

Country name
Conventional long form: Italian Republic
Conventional short form: Italy
Local long form: Repubblica Italiana
Local short form: Italia
Former: Kingdom of Italy

Government type: republic

Capital: Rome

Administrative divisions: 20 regions (regioni, singular_regione; Abruzzi, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardia, Marche, Molise, Piemonte, Puglia, Sardegna, Sicilia, Toscana, Trentino-Alto Adige, Umbria, Valle d'Aosta, Veneto

Independence: 17 March 1861 (Kingdom of Italy proclaimed)

National holiday: Anniversary of the Republic, 2 June (1946)

Constitution: 1 January 1948

Legal system: based on civil law system, with ecclesiastical law influence; appeals treated as trials de novo; judicial review under certain conditions in Constitutional Court; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal (except in senatorial elections, where minimum age is 25)

Executive branch
Chief of state: President Oscar Luigi SCALFARO (since 28 May 1992): ead of
Government: Prime Minister (referred to in Italy as the president of the Council of Ministers) Romano PRODI (since 18 May 1996)
Cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the prime minister and approved by the president
Elections: president elected by an electoral college consisting of both houses of Parliament and 58 regional representatives for a seven-year term; election last held 25 May 1992 (next to be held NA 1999); prime minister appointed by the president
Election results: Oscar Luigi SCALFARO elected president; percent of electoral college vote_NA

Legislative branch: bicameral Parliament or Parlamento consists of the Senate or Senato della Repubblica (326 seats, 315 popularly elected of which 232 are directly elected and 83 by regional proportional representation, 11 appointed senators-for-life; members serve five-year terms) and the Chamber of Deputies or Camera dei Deputati (630 seats; 475 are directly elected, 155 by regional proportional representation; members serve five-year terms)
Elections: Senate_last held 21 April 1996 (next to be held by NA April 2001); Chamber of Deputies_last held 21 April 1996 (next to be held by NA April 2001)
Election results: Senate_percent of vote by party_NA; seats by party_Olive Tree 157, Freedom Alliance 116, Northern League 27, Refounded Communists 10, regional lists 3, Social Movement-Tricolor Flames 1, Panella Reformers 1; Chamber of Deputies_percent of vote by party_NA; seats by party_Olive Tree 284, Freedom Alliance 246, Northern League 59, Refounded Communists 35, Southern Tyrol List 3, Autonomous List 2, other 1

Judicial branch: Constitutional Court or Corte Costituzionale, composed of 15 judges (one-third appointed by the president, one-third elected by Parliament, one-third elected by the ordinary and administrative supreme courts)

International organization participation: AfDB, AG (observer), AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CCC, CDB (non-regional), CE, CE (observer), CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, ECE, ECLAC, EIB, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 7, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MINUGUA, MINURSO, MTCR, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNIKOM, UNITAR, UNMIBH, UNMOGIP, UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WEU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO, ZC

Diplomatic representation
In the us chief of mission: Ambassador Ferdinando SALLEO
In the us chancery: 1601 Fuller Street NW, Washington, DC 20,009 and 2,700 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20,009
In the us telephone: [1] (202) 328-5,500
In the us fax: [1] (202) 483-2,187
In the us consulates general: Boston, Chicago, Houston, Miami, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco
In the us consulates: Detroit and New Orleans
From the us chief of mission: Ambassador Thomas M. FOGLIETTA
From the us embassy: Via Veneto 119/A, 00187-Rome
From the us mailing address: PSC 59, Box 100, APO AE 9,624
From the us telephone: [39] (6) 46,741
From the us fax: [39] (6) 488-2,672
From the us consulates general: Florence, Milan, Naples

Flag description: three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and red; similar to the flag of Ireland, which is longer and is green (hoist side), white, and orange; also similar to the flag of the Cote d'Ivoire, which has the colors reversed_orange (hoist side), white, and green

Economy overview: Since World War II, the Italian economy has changed from one based on agriculture into a ranking industrial economy, with approximately the same total and per capita output as France and the UK. This basically capitalistic economy is still divided into a developed industrial north, dominated by private companies, and a less developed agricultural south, with large public enterprises and more than 20% unemployment. Most raw materials needed by industry and over 75% of energy requirements must be imported. In the second half of 1992, Rome became unsettled by the prospect of not qualifying to participate in EU plans for economic and monetary union later in the decade; thus, it finally began to address its huge fiscal imbalances. Subsequently, the government has adopted fairly stringent budgets, abandoned its inflationary wage indexation system, and started to scale back its generous social welfare programs, including pension and health care benefits. In November 1996 the lire rejoined the European monetary system, which it had left in September 1992 when under extreme pressure in currency markets. Italy faces the problem of restructuring its economy to meet Maastricht criteria for inclusion in the EMU, together with other problems of refurbishing a tottering communications system, curbing industrial pollution, and adjusting to new EU and global competitive forces.

Real gdp growth rate: 1.5% (1997 est.)

Real gdp per capita: purchasing power parity: $21,500 (1997 est.)

Gdp composition by sector of origin
Agriculture: 3.3%
Industry: 33%
Services: 63.7% (1994)

Agriculture products: fruits, vegetables, grapes, potatoes, sugar beets, soybeans, grain, olives; meat and dairy products; fish catch of 525,000 metric tons in 1990

Industries: tourism, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, food processing, textiles, motor vehicles, clothing, footwear, ceramics

Industrial production growth rate: 0.5% (1996 est.)

Labor force
Total: 22.851 million
By occupation services: 61%
By occupation industry: 32%
By occupation agriculture: 7% (1996)

Unemployment rate: 12.2% (December 1997 est.)

Budget
Revenues: $416 billion
Expenditures: $506 billion, including capital expenditures of $47 billion (1996 est.)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Exports: total value:$250.8 billion (f.o.b., 1996)
Commodoties: metals, textiles and clothing, production machinery, motor vehicles, transportation equipment, chemicals
Partners: EU 53.4%, US 7.8%, OPEC 3.8%

Imports: total value:$190 billion (c.i.f., 1996)
Commodoties: industrial machinery, chemicals, transport equipment, petroleum, metals, food, agricultural products
Partners: EU 45.5%, OPEC 4.8%, US 4.3%

Debt external: $45 billion (1996 est.)

Exchange rates: Italian lire (Lit) per US$1_1,787.7 (January 1998), 1,703.1 (1997), 1,542.9 (1996), 1,628.9 (1995), 1,612.4 (1994), 1,573.7 (1993)

Electricity
Capacity: 57.186 million kW (1995)
Production: 225.179 billion kWh (1995)
Consumption per capita: 4,509 kWh (1995)

Telephones: 25.6 million (1996 est.)

Telephone system: modern, well-developed, fast; fully automated telephone, telex, and data services
Domestic: high-capacity cable and microwave radio relay trunks
International: satellite earth stations_3 Intelsat (with a total of 5 antennas - 3 for Atlantic Ocean and 2 for Indian Ocean), 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean region), and NA Eutelsat; 21 submarine cables

Military expenditures
Dollar figure: $20.4 billion (1995)
Percent of gdp: 1.9% (1995)

Airports: 136 (1997 est.)
With paved runways total: 96
With paved runways over 3047 m: 5
With paved runways 2438 to 3047 m: 33
With paved runways 15-24 to 2437 m: 16
With paved runways 914 to 1523 m: 30
With paved runways under 914 m: 12 (1997 est.)
With unpaved runways total: 40
With unpaved runways 15-24 to 2437 m: 2
With unpaved runways 914 to 1523 m: 20
With unpaved runways under 914 m: 18 (1997 est.)

Heliports: 3 (1997 est.)

Pipelines: crude oil 1,703 km; petroleum products 2,148 km; natural gas 19,400 km

Railways
Total: 19,437 km
Standard gauge: 18,103 km 1.435-m gauge; Italian Railways (FS) operates 15,942 km of the total standard gauge routes (11,299 km electrified)
Narrow gauge: 56 km 1.000-m gauge (56 km electrified); 1,278 km 0.950-m gauge (19 km electrified) (1996)

Waterways: 2,400 km for various types of commercial traffic, although of limited overall value

Merchant marine
Total: 365 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 5,032,728 GRT/7,076,307 DWT
Ships by type: bulk 29, cargo 47, chemical tanker 39, combination ore/oil 2, container 15, liquefied gas tanker 30, multifunction large-load carrier 1, oil tanker 98, passenger 5, roll-on/roll-off cargo 51, short-sea passenger 30, specialized tanker 11, vehicle carrier 7 (1997 est.)

Disputes international: Italy is negotiating with Slovenia over property and minority rights issues dating from World War II; Croatia and Italy made progress toward resolving a bilateral issue dating from WWII over property and ethnic minority rights

Illicit drugs: important gateway for and consumer of Latin American cocaine and Southwest Asian heroin entering the European market