Background: Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the city-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.
Location: Southern Europe, a peninsula extending into the central Mediterranean Sea,
northeast of Tunisia
Population: 58,103,033 (July 2005 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 13.9% (male 4,166,213/female 3,919,288)
15-64
years: 66.7% (male 19,554,416/female 19,174,629)
65 years and
over: 19.4% (male 4,698,441/female 6,590,046) (2005 est.)
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Male Profiles
