Administrative divisions: Regions of Italy, Provinces of Italy and Municipalities of Italy
Italy is subdivided into 20 Regions. Five of these regions have a special autonomous status that enables them to enact legislation on some of their local matters;
The country is further divided into 110 provinces (province) and 8,100 municipalities (comuni).
At the end of 2008, the Italian population surpassed 60 million. Italy has the fourth-largest population in the European Union and the 23rd-largest population worldwide. Italy’s population density, at 199.2 persons per square kilometer, is the fifth highest in the European Union.
Administrative divisions Main articles: Regions of Italy, Provinces of Italy, and Municipalities of Italy Italy is subdivided into 20 Regions.
Five of these regions have a special autonomous status that enables them to enact legislation on some of their local matters; these are marked by an asterisk (*) in the table below.
The country is further divided into 110 provinces (province) and 8,100 municipalities (comuni)
The highest density is in Northern Italy, as that one-third of the country contains almost half of the total population. After World War II, Italy enjoyed a prolonged economic boom which caused a major rural exodus to the cities, and at the same time transformed the nation from a massive emigration country to a net immigrant-receiving country.
High fertility persisted until the 1970s, when it plunged below the replacement rates, so that as of 2008, one in five Italians was over 65 years old.[Despite this, thanks mainly to the massive immigration of the last two decades, in the 2000s, Italy experienced a growth in the crude birth rate (especially in the northern regions) for the first time in many years. The total fertility rate has also significantly grown in the past few years, thanks to rising births among both in foreign-born and Italian women, as it climbed from 1.32 children per woman in 2005 to 1.41 in 2008.
Italy is the world’s 7th largest economy with a GDP of $2.1 trillion. Italy’s economy is expected to grow 1.1 percent in 2010 following two years of decline due to the global recession.
The economy of Italy was in 2008 the seventh-largest economy in the world and the fourth-largest in Europe, according to the International Monetary Fund. Italy belongs to the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations; it is a member of the European Union and OECD. The country is divided into a developed industrial north dominated by large private companies and an agricultural, state-assisted south. Italy has, according to The Economist the world’s 8th highest quality of life index, has a very high standard of living, and is the world’s 18th most developed country, surpassing other comparable developed countries such as the UK, Germany, and Greece.
The country also is home to 6 of the world’s 100 biggest companies. According to the World Bank, Italy has high levels of freedom for investments, business and trade. Italy has the world’s 6th (7th including the European Union) highest exports, that of US$ 546,900,000,000 (est.) in 2008. Italy, also, is the world’s fifth largest industrial goods producer with a US$381 billion output in 2008.
Despite Italy’s concentration on the secondary and tertiary economic sectors, the nation is also an important agricultural (primary) exporter, being the biggest producer of kiwifruits (415,050 tonnes), grape (8,519,418 tonnes) and artichoke (469,980 tonnes) producer worldwide. On addition to this, the country exports and produces the highest level of wine exporting over 1,793 tonnes. Italy was responsible for producing approximately one-fifth of world wine production in 2005.
On addition to that, Italy has the world’s 4th (3rd excluding the IMF) largest gold reserves, that of 2,451.8 tonnes, coming after the USA and Germany, and surpassing France and China. Italy has also been classified, according to a study as being the 11th greatest national power in the world. Tourism is one of the fastest growing and most profitable sectors of the national economy: with 43.7 million international tourist arrivals and total revenues estimated at $42.7 billion, Italy is the fifth major tourist destination and the fourth highest tourist earner in the world.
According to Eurostat data, Italian PPS GDP per capita approximately equaled the EU average in 2008. Italy has a diversified industrial economy with roughly the same total and per capita output as France and the UK. Italy’s major exports are precision machinery, motor vehicles, chemicals and electric goods, but the country’s more famous exports are food, clothing, and luxury vehicles. With over 37 million tourists a year, Italy is also ranked as the fourth major tourist destination in the world.
Most raw materials needed by industry and more than 75% of energy requirements are imported. Despite some short-term reforms aimed at improving competitiveness and long-term growth, the economy experienced low growth in 2006, and unemployment remained at a high level.
|Exports||$369 billion (2009 est.)|
|Export goods||engineering products, textiles and clothing, production machinery, motor vehicles, transport equipment, chemicals; food, beverages and tobacco; minerals, and nonferrous metals|
|Main export partners||Germany 12.7%, France 11.2%, Spain 6.5%, US 6.2%, UK 5.2% (2008)|
|Imports||$358.7 billion (2009 est.)|
|Import goods||engineering products, chemicals, transport equipment, energy products, minerals and nonferrous metals, textiles and clothing; food, beverages, and tobacco|
|Main import partners||Germany 15.9%, France 8.5%, China 6.2%, Netherlands 5.3%, Libya 4.6%, Russia 4.2% (2008)|
|FDI stock||$386.7 billion (31 December 2009 est.)|
|Gross external debt||$2.328 trillion (31 December 2008)|
|GDP||$2.09 trillion (nominal);
$1.756 trillion (PPP) (2009 est.)
|GDP growth||-5% (2009 est.)|
|GDP per capita||$39,000 (nominal);
$30,200 (PPP) (2009 est.)
|GDP by sector||agriculture: 2.1%; industry: 25%; services: 72.9% (2009 est.)|
|Inflation (CPI)||0.6% (2009 est.)|
|Gini index||32 (2006)|
|Labour force||24.95 million (2009 est.)|
|services (65.1%), industry (30.7%), agriculture (4.2%) (2008 est.)|
|Main industries||tourism, commerce, communications, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, food processing, textiles, automobiles, home appliances, clothing, footwear, ceramics|