Demographics of Italy
| Demographics of Italy | |
|---|---|
Population pyramid of Italy as of January 1st, 2023 | |
| Population | 58,934,177 (31 December 2024)[1] |
| Density | 201/km2 (520/sq mi) (2024) |
| Growth rate | -0.06% (2024) |
| Birth rate | 6.3 births/1,000 population (2024) |
| Death rate | 10.4 deaths/1,000 population (2024) |
| Life expectancy | 83.4 years (2024) |
| • male | 81.4 years |
| • female | 85.5 years |
| Fertility rate | 1.18 children born/woman (2024) |
| Infant mortality rate | 3.6 deaths/1,000 live births (2015)[2] |
| Net migration rate | 1.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2020) |
| Age structure | |
| 0–14 years | 12.89% |
| 15–64 years | 63.57% |
| 65 and over | 23.54% |
| Nationality | |
| Nationality | noun: Italian(s) adjective: Italian |
| Major ethnic | Italians (87.2%) (Native) |
| Minor ethnic |
|
| Language | |
| Official | Italian |
| Spoken | Languages of Italy |
The demography of Italy is monitored by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat).
At the beginning of 2024, Italy had an estimated population of 58.9 million.[1] Its population density, at 195.7 inhabitants per square kilometre (507/sq mi), is higher than both the EU (106.6/km2) and European (72.9/km2) average. However, the distribution of the population is very uneven: the most densely populated areas are the Po Valley (with about a third of the country's population) in northern Italy and the metropolitan areas of Rome and Naples in central and southern Italy; landlocked, rural and mountainous areas are very sparsely populated, notably the Alps and Apennines ranges, the plateaus of Basilicata and Puglia, the inland highlands of Sicily and the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.
The population of the country almost doubled during the 20th century, but the pattern of growth was extremely uneven due to large-scale internal migration from the impoverished, largely rural South to the industrial cities of the North, especially during the Italian economic miracle of the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, after decades of net emigration, since the late 1980s Italy has experienced large-scale international immigration. As a result, in 2024 there were 5.4 million foreign-born residents in the country, or about 9.2% of Italy's total poulation.[1]
High fertility and birth rates persisted through the 1970s, then declined sharply in the 1980s and 1990s, leading to rapid population aging. At the end of the 2000s, one in five Italians was over 65 years old.[3] In 2024, Italy's total fertility rate was 1.18,[1] well below the EU average (1.38)[4] and one of the lowest in the world.
Since the revision of the Lateran Treaty in 1984, Italy has no official religion, although the Catholic Church enjoys a privileged legal status and plays a prominent role in Italian society and politics.[5] In 2017, 78% of the population identified as Catholic, 15% as non-believers or atheists, 2% as other Christians and 6% adhered to other religions.[6]
- ^ a b c d "Demographic Indicators. Year 2024" (PDF). Istat. Retrieved 16 September 2025.
- ^ "La mortalità in Italia sotto i 5 anni: aggiornamento dei dati per causa, territorio e cittadinanza". Istat.it. Istat. 18 October 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
- ^ "Ageing characterises the demographic perspectives of the European societies – Issue number 72/2008" (PDF). EUROSTAT. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2009. Retrieved 28 April 2009.
- ^ "Fertility statistics". Eurostat. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
- ^ Ferrari, Alessandro (2024). "Chapter 5". Religious freedom in Italy: an impossible paradigm?. Berlin: De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3110743579.
- ^ "Being Christian in Western Europe" (PDF). Pew Research Center. 2018. p. 22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2020.