Population Lives in Plain Areas, the 38.8% on the Hills and Only the 12.1% on the Mountains

Published on Eurydice (https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice)

Demographic situation

The Italian territory, with the exclusion of Republic of San Marino and Vatican City State, covers an area of 302 068 square km. The territory is made up of 35.2% of mountains, 41.6% of hills and 23.2% of plains. The 49.1% of the population lives in plain areas, the 38.8% on the hills and only the 12.1% on the mountains.

At 1st January 2020, residents in Italy were 60 244 639 (29 340 565 males and 30 904 074 females), approximately 190 000 residents less than the previous year. In 2019, the birth rate continued to fall (- 19 577 births), with births equal to 420 170.

Foreign residents at 1st January 2020 were 5 306 548 (8.8% of the total resident population). The majority of foreign citizens come from EU countries (29.9%), whereas the highest number of non-EU migrants come from central-east Europe (19.5%) and Northern Africa (13%).

At 1st January 2020, the ratio between old population aged 65 and over and population aged 0-15, was equal to 178.4%, with a steady increase compared with the previous years. The aging process concerns the whole national territory; however, the aging rate is higher in the Centre and in the North (187.9%), whereas it is lower in the South with the lowest percentage in Campania (134.7%) which is the ’less old’ region of the country.

Life expectancy at birth is 81 years for males and 85.3 years for females.

Source: ISTAT - Annuario statistico italiano 2020 [1] Ch. 1 (data on the territory) and Ch. 3 (data on the population).

The tables below show the most recent available statistical data on the economic and demographic situation and data in years 2000 and 2005.

Table 1 - Age distribution of the population (1st January)

0-14 15-64 above 65 years years years 2000 14.4% 67.6% 18.0% 2005 14.1% 66.4% 19.5% 2020 13.0% 63.9% 23.2%

Table 2 - Rates of employment and unemployment

Employment Unemployment 2000 53.5% 10.6% 2005 57.5% 7.7% 2019 59.0% 10.0%

Table 3 - Immigration and migration ﬂows (1st January)

Total immigrant Percentage Enrolments Cancellations resident of the total from abroad to abroad population 1st resident January population 2000 226 968 56 601 1 270 553 2.2% 2005 325 673 65 029 2 402 157 4.1% 2020 333 799 182 154 5 306 548 8.8%

Fonti: ISTAT [2] - Annuario statistico italiano, years 2001, 2005, 2020.

Languages

Italian is the oﬃcial language. However, law 482/1999 protects the language and culture of minorities, as also provided for by the Constitution and European regulations. In Italy, the presence of minority languages [3] is linked to both historical and geographical reasons. Oﬃcial minority languages and culture are 12 and they are spoken:

in speciﬁc areas at the borders where people talk, together with Italian, French (Valle d’Aosta), German (Trentino/Alto Adige), Ladin (Trentino/Alto Adige), Slovenian (Friuli-Venezia Giulia; in some communities spread all over the country (Albanian, Catalan, Greek, Croatian, Provençal-French, Languedoc); in the Regions Sardegna and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, where people speak Sardinian and Friulan, respectively.

According to law no. 482, school education has a key role in the promotion and learning also of these minority languages.

At central level, the Ministry of education [4] promotes and ﬁnances national and local projects through speciﬁc annual plans.

Single schools of the areas where oﬃcial minority languages are spoken, organise the teaching and learning of the minority language and culture also upon the requests of parents. At preprimary level, this means that the minority language is used to carry out educative activities. At primary and secondary levels, the minority language is used as teaching language.

Religions

The most widespread religion in Italy is Roman Catholicism which is not, however, a State religion. The Constitution states that "all citizens have equal dignity and are equal before the law without distinction of sex, race, language and religion".

The Italian Constitution establishes that the State and the Holy See are independent and sovereign and that relationships are ruled by the Lateran Treaty of 1929, subsequently amended in 1985. Legal relations between the Italian State and the Catholic Church are regulated by a Concordat, included in the Lateran Treaty, which makes provision, among other things, for the Catholic religion to be taught in state schools to those pupils who so request.

Relations between the State and the other religions are based on agreements with the respective representatives.

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Source URL: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/population-demographic-situation-languages-and-religio ns-39_hr?2nd-language=et

Links [1] https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/251048 [2] http://www.istat.it [3] https://www.miur.gov.it/lingue-di-minoranza [4] http://www.miur.gov.it