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Outreach
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Introduction:
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Italy .gif)
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Background:
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Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the regional states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI established a Fascist dictatorship. His disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany led to Italy's defeat in World War II. A democratic republic replaced the monarchy in 1946 and economic revival followed. Italy was a charter member of NATO and the European Economic Community (EEC). It has been at the forefront of European economic and political unification, joining the Economic and Monetary Union in 1999. Persistent problems include illegal immigration, organized crime, corruption, high unemployment, sluggish economic growth, and the low incomes and technical standards of southern Italy compared with the prosperous north.
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Location:
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Southern Europe, a peninsula extending into the central Mediterranean Sea, northeast of Tunisia
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Land boundaries:
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total: 1,932.2 km
border countries: Austria 430 km, France 488 km, Holy See (Vatican City) 3.2 km, San Marino 39 km, Slovenia 232 km, Switzerland 740 km
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Climate:
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territorial sea: 12 nm
continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
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Terrain:
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mostly rugged and mountainous; some plains, coastal lowlands
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Area Comparative
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slightly larger than Arizona
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58,147,733 (July 2007 est.)
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Age structure: |
0-14 years: 13.8% (male 4,121,246/female 3,874,971)
15-64 years: 66.4% (male 19,527,203/female 19,059,897)
65 years and over: 19.9% (male 4,823,244/female 6,741,172) (2007 est.) |
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Population growth rate: |
0.01% (2007 est.)
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| Birth rate: |
8.54 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)
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| Death rate: |
10.5 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)
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Infant mortality rate:
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total: 5.72 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 6.3 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 5.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2007 est.)
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Life expectancy at birth:
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total population: 79.94 years
male: 77.01 years
female: 83.07 years (2007 est.)
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HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
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0.5% (2001 est.)
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HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
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140,000 (2001 est.)
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HIV/AIDS - deaths:
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less than 1,000 (2003 est.)
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Nationality:
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noun: Italian(s)
adjective: Italian
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Ethnic groups:
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Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and Slovene-Italians in the north and Albanian-Italians and Greek-Italians in the south)
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Religions:
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Roman Catholic 90% (approximately; about one-third regularly attend services), other 10% (includes mature Protestant and Jewish communities and a growing Muslim immigrant community)
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Languages:
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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)
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Country name:
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conventional long form: Italian Republic
conventional short form: Italy
local long form: Repubblica Italiana
local short form: Italia
former: Kingdom of Italy
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Government type:
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republic
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Capital:
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name: Rome
geographic coordinates: 41 54 N, 12 29 E
time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October
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Independence:
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17 March 1861 (Kingdom of Italy proclaimed; Italy was not finally unified until 1870)
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Flag description:
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three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and red; similar to the flag of Ireland, which is longer and is green (hoist side), white, and orange; also similar to the flag of the Cote d'Ivoire, which has the colors reversed - orange (hoist side), white, and green; inspired by the French flag brought to Italy by Napoleon in 1797
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