Back to the Flags of Europe page

Italy is a country in central southern Europe. As well as the mainland, Italy has two large islands and several smaller ones. The largest two are Scilly at the foot of Italy and Sardinia to the west. Italy is often said to be shaped like a boot.

Italy is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic Sea.

The land is mountainous with lowlands on the coast. The Appennine Mountain range runs right down the middle of Italy from top to bottom.

The geographical coordinates for the centre of Italy, also known as lines of latitude and longitude, are:-
Latitude - 42 50N
Longitude - 12 50E

The capital of Italy is Rome.

Italy is a parliamentary republic with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of the government.

In elections everyone over the age of 18 can vote. In elections to the senate, you have to be over 25.

The currency in Italy is the euro. Italy was a founder member of what is now the European Union.

Italian is the official language.

Check the weather in Rome now.

This is the time in Rome now

   Back to the top

The Italian flag is 3 equal vertical stripes of green, white and red. It is said that the design was inspired by the French flag brought to Italy by Napoleon in 1797. The colours are those of Milan (red and white) plus the green uniform worn by the Milanese civic guard.

Hear the National Anthem



These are the anthem words

The words ×

You are now listening to the Italian National Anthem called The Song of the Italians. It was adopted in 1946, although written as long ago as 1847.

If anthem fails to play click here

Italian Brothers, Italy has awakened, She has wreathed her head with the helmet of Scipio.
Where is Victory? She bows her head to you, You, whom God created as the slave of Rome.

CHORUS: Let us band together, ww are ready to die, we are ready to die, Italy has called us.

We were for centuries downtrodden and derided, because we are not one people, because we are divided.
Let one flag, one hope gather us all. The hour has struck for us to join together.

Let us unite and love one another, union and love show the people the way of the Lord.
Let us swear to free our native soil; United under God, who can defeat us?

CHORUS

From the Alps to Sicily, Legnano is everywhere; Every man has the heart and hand of Ferruccio
The children of Italy are all called Balilla; Every trumpet blast sounds the Vespers.

Mercenary swords, they’re feeble reeds. The Austrian eagle has already lost its plumes.
The blood of Italy and the Polish blood it drank, along with the Cossack, But it burned its heart.

CHORUS

The Land
The People
Life and Death
Health, Energy and the Environment
Education and Work
Travel, Communication and the Media

The total land area of Italy is 294,140 sq kms which is the 9th largest in Europe.

Italy has lakes, rivers and canals which total 7,200 sq kms.

Italy has boundaries with 6 countries

• Switzerland 698 kms
• France 476 kms
• Austria 404 kms
• Slovenia 218 kms
• San Marino 37 kms
• Vatican City 3.4 kms

Italy has a coastline of 7,600 kms which is the 4th longest in Europe.

The highest point in Italy is Monte Bianco de Courmayeur at 4,748 metres.

The pie chart below shows how the land is split between agricultural land (crops and pastures), forests and other, which can be towns, villages, desert or frozen waste called tundra.

   Back to the top

The total population of Italy is 62 million people, making it the 4th largest country in Europe by population.

Of this number 32.11 million are females and 29.89 million are males.

A person from Italy is called an Italian.

To be a citizen of Italy, one of your parents must be a citizen of Italy. It is not sufficient to be born in Italy. You have to live in Italy for 4 years before you can begin to apply for citizenship if you are an EU national. The time is 5 years for refugees and 10 years for others.

The largest five cities in Italy, by population are:-

• Rome 2,318,895 people
• Milan 1,236,837
• Naples 959,470
• Turin 870,456
• Palermo (in Scilly) 648,260

For each country we will give you a diagram showing the population density. This is the average number of people for each square kilometre. Each little Owlbut is 1 person and the big yellow rectangle is 1 sq km. After a while you can compare countries and see which ones are the most crowded. Remember it is only an average as more people live closer together in towns and cities than in villages out in the country.



69.0% of the people live in cities or towns.

   Back to the top

The birth rate in Italy is 8.7 births per 1,000 of population

The death rate in Italy is 10.3 deaths per 1,000 people.

Check this against the birth rate. If the death rate is higher than the birth rate then the population will decrease unless immigrants arrive in the country.

There are 3.1 deaths of girls under 1 year per 1,000 of births and 3.5 deaths of boys.

The median age for females is 36.8 and for males is 36.1. The median age is that age which divides the population exactly in half so there are the same number of people above the median age as below it.

The average age of a woman when she has her first child is 30.3.

The elderly dependency ratio is 35.0. This is the number of elderly people (ages 65+) per 100 people of working age (ages 15-64).

The potential support ratio is 2.9. This is the number of working-age people (ages 15-64) per one elderly person (ages 65+). As a population ages, the potential support ratio tends to fall, meaning there are fewer potential workers to support the elderly.

   Back to the top

Italy spends 9.2% of its total income on health care.

There are 3.76 doctors per 1,000 people.

There are 3.4 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

19.9% of the population are estimated as obese.

100% of Italians have drinking water that is either piped into their home or they have access to a public tap, a protected borehole, well, spring or protected rainwater collection facility.

99.5% of the urban population and 99.6% of the rural population have access to a flushing toilet that is connected to a sewer, a pit latrine (that is a permanent hole in the ground that is looked after) or a composting toilet.ked after) or a composting toilet.

Italy releases 362.0 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels in the process of producing and consuming energy. This puts it as the 4th highest in Europe.

   Back to the top

Italy spends 4.2% of its total income on education.

Children usually start school at age 6 in Italy. Primary education is for five years until age 11 and secondary education must continue till 16 but can go on to 18/19. This may be followed by further education at a university or college.

Generally the school year consists of 3 terms and starts in early September and finishes in the middle of June. There is usually a 2 week break at Christmas and a 1 week break at Easter. There don't appear to be any half-term breaks. There are some reginal variations.

99.0% of females and 99.4% of males are able to read and write by the age of 15.

37.8% of all people aged between 16 and 24 are not in work. Among females 39.6% are unemployed while with males 36.5% can't find work.

The total number of people available for work in Italy is 25.5 million.

They work in the following sectors.

• Agriculture includes farming, fishing and forestry work
• Industry includes mining, manufacturing, construction and energy workers
• Services is everything else

11.9% of the workforce are unemployed.

   Back to the top

There are 98 paved airports in Italy, which is the 7th highest number in Europe.


There are 20,181 kilometres of railways in Italy, which is the 4th longest in Europe.


There are 487,700 kilometres of roads in Italy, which means Italy is in 4th place for the most kilometres of roads in Europe.

There are 5 major national newspapers in Italy.

There are 92.52 million mobile phone users.

39% of the people have a fixed landline.



40.56 million people have access to the internet at home via any device (computer or mobile).

   Back to the top