Facts and Statistics
Location: Southern Europe, bordering Austria 430 km, France 488 km, Holy See (Vatican City)
3.2 km, San Marino 39 km, Slovenia 232 km, Switzerland 740 km
Capital: Rome
Climate: predominantly Mediterranean; Alpine in far north; hot, dry in south
Population: 58,057,477 (July 2004 est.)
Ethnic Make-up: Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and Slovene-Italians in the north and Albanian-Italians and Greek-Italians in the south)
Religions: predominately Roman Catholic with mature Protestant and Jewish communities and a
growing Muslim immigrant community
Government: republic