Location: Southern Europe, a peninsula extending into the central Mediterranean Sea, northeast of Tunisia
Population: 61,049,883 (2013 est.)
Land Area: 301,338km²
Capital: Rome
Main cities: Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo, Genoa, Bologna, Florence, Bari, Catania, Venice
Languages: Italian (official); German, French
GDP: $2.071 trillion (2013 est.)
Monetary unit: Euro (formerly lira)
Exports: $450.1 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.)
Exports - commodities: engineering products, textiles and clothing, production machinery, motor vehicles, transport equipment, chemicals; food, beverages and tobacco; minerals, and nonferrous metals
Exports - partners: Germany 13.2%, France 11.7%, US 7.6%, Spain 7.3%, UK 6.1% (2006)
Imports: $445.6 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.)
Imports - commodities: engineering products, chemicals, transport equipment, energy products, minerals and nonferrous metals, textiles and clothing; food, beverages, and tobacco
Imports - partners: Germany 16.7%, France 9.2%, Netherlands 5.6%, China 5.2%, Belgium 4.2%, Spain 4.1% (2006)
Land use:
arable land: 26.41%
permanent crops: 9.09%
other: 64.5% (2005)
Natural resources: coal, mercury, zinc, potash, marble, barite, asbestos, pumice, fluorspar, feldspar, pyrite (sulfur), natural gas and crude oil reserves, fish, arable land