ITALY

Southern Europe, a peninsula extending into the central Mediterranean Sea, northeast of Tunisia

total: 301,340 sq km land: 294,140 sq km water: 7,200 sq km

predominantly Mediterranean; Alpine in the far north; hot, dry in the south

61,095,551 (2022 est.)

The economy of Italy is divided among a private company-dominated developed industrial north and a less developed, heavily subsidized agrarian south that has a history of unemployment and underdevelopment. The production of high-quality consumer goods by small and medium-sized businesses, many of which are family-owned, is a major driver of the Italian economy. According to some estimates, the underground economy in Italy contributes up to 17% of the country's GDP.  The agricultural, construction and service industries are where these activities are most prevalent. Italy has the third-largest economy in the eurozone, but due to its very high public debt and structural growth barriers, it is subject to close market scrutiny. Since 2007, public debt has risen substantially, reaching 131% of GDP in 2017. Italy's borrowing costs on sovereign government debt decreased from levels set during the euro period in 2013 as investor fears about the country and the broader euro-zone crisis subsided. Investors and European partners continue to put pressure on the government to continue working to resolve Italy's enduring structural economic issues, which include an inefficient labor market, a sluggish judicial system, and a poor banking sector. The Italian economy experienced slight growth for the first time since 2011 in late 2014. The Italian economy expanded by around 1?tween 2015 and 2016.

Italian

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

9.88% (2019 est.) 10.63% (2018 est.) country comparison to the world: 146

Italian (official), 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)

Christian 80.8% (overwhelmingly Roman Catholic with very small groups of Jehovah's Witnesses and Protestants), Muslim 4.9%, unaffiliated 13.4%, other 0.9% (2020 est.)

0-14 years: 13.45% (male 4,292,431/female 4,097,732) 15-24 years: 9.61% (male 3,005,402/female 2,989,764) 25-54 years: 40.86% (male 12,577,764/female 12,921,614) 55-64 years: 14% (male 4,243,735/female 4,493,581) 65 years and over: 22.08% (2020 est.) (male 5,949,560/female 7,831,076)

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

$2,322,140,000,000 (2020 est.) $2,548,190,000,000 (2019 est.) $2,540,890,000,000 (2018 est.) note: data are in 2017 dollars country comparison to the world: 12

0.34% (2019 est.) 0.83% (2018 est.) 1.73% (2017 est.) country comparison to the world: 187

$39,000 (2020 est.) $42,700 (2019 est.) $42,100 (2018 est.) note: data are in 2017 dollars country comparison to the world: 45

$2,002,763,000,000 (2019 est.)