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.)