Population 56,782,748 (July 1998 est.)

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/1,000 population (1998 est.)

Death rate 10.18 deaths/1,000 population (1998 est.)

Net migration rate 0.21 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1998 est.)

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/1,000 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.)

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)

Religions Roman Catholic 98%, other 2%

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)

Literacy
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 97%
male: 98%
female: 96% (1990 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding Italy on this page is re-published from the 1998 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Italy People 1998 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Italy People 1998 should be addressed to the CIA.