Demographics Main article: Demography of Italy

 its economy depends more on State-funded industry or on State-related jobs, rather than private enterprises.
Infrastructure


Frecciarossa high speed trains, capable of 355 km/h (220.59 mph).[131][132][133]
Main article: Transport in Italy
In 2004 the transport sector in Italy generated a turnover of about 119.4 billion euros, employing 935,700 persons in 153,700 enterprises. Regarding the national road network, in 2002 there were 668,721 km (415,524 mi) of serviceable roads in Italy, including 6,487 km (4,031 mi) of motorways, state-owned but privately operated by Atlantia. In 2005, about 34,667,000 passenger cars (590 cars per 1,000 people) and 4,015,000 goods vehicles circulated on the national road network.[134]
The national railway network, state-owned and operated by Ferrovie dello Stato, in 2003 totalled 16,287 km (10,120 mi) of which 69% is electrified, and on which 4,937 locomotives and railcars circulated. The national inland waterways network comprised 1,477 km (918 mi) of navigable rivers and channels in 2002. In 2004 there were approximately 30 main airports (including the two hubs of Malpensa International in Milan and Leonardo da Vinci International in Rome) and 43 major seaports (including the seaport of Genoa, the country's largest and second largest in the Mediterranean Sea). In 2005 Italy maintained a civilian air fleet of about 389,000 units and a merchant fleet of 581 ships.[134]
Demographics

Main article: Demography of Italy


Population 1861–2011. Number of inhabitants.
Italy has 60,626,442 inhabitants according to 1 January 2011 municipal records (Anagrafe).[135] Its population density, at 201/km² (520/sq. mile), is higher than that of most Western European countries. However the distribution of the population is widely uneven. The most densely populated areas are the Po Valley (that accounts for almost a half of the national population) and the metropolitan areas of Rome and Naples, while vast regions such as the Alps and Apennines highlands, the plateaus of Basilicata and the island of Sardinia are very sparsely populated.
The population of Italy almost doubled during the 20th century, but the pattern of growth was extremely uneven because of large-scale internal migration from the rural South to the industrial cities of the North, a phenomenon which happened as a consequence of the Italian economic miracle of the 1950–1960s. In addition, after centuries of net emigration, from the 1980s Italy has experienced large-scale immigration for the first time in modern history. According to the Italian government, there were 4,570,317 foreign residents in Italy as of January 2011.[136]
High fertility and birth rates persisted until the 1970s, after which they start to dramatically decline, leading to rapid population aging. At the end of the 2000s (decade), one in five Italians was over 65 years old.[137] However, thanks mainly to the massive immigration of the last two decades, in recent years Italy experienced a significant growth in birth rates.[138] The total fertility rate has also climbed from an all-time low of 1.18 children per woman in 1995 to 1.41 in 2008.[139] The TFR is expected to reach 1.6 - 1.8 in 2030.[140]

v t e Largest cities or towns of Italy
ISTAT estimates for 31 October 2012
Rank    Name    Region    Pop.    Rank    Name    Region