Population (total): 61,016,804 Capital: Rome Population: 3,357,000 Currency: Euro (EUR) The Italian Annual Median Income after taxes is $18,000 USD. Annual Median Income Cint uses the median household income to provide a point of comparison between income-earners in each country. Where the mean income average is the sum of all parts (or aggregate income) divided by the number of items (or income earners), the median average is the point that divides the population into two groups; half of the population makes an income below the median income amount, and half makes more than that amount. The median income is seen as a better indicator as it avoids the effect of dramatically high or low values.
72%owns their own home	33%owns a smartphone
51.7%has access to internet	31.5%is on Facebook
67.3%owns some type of vehicle

Main Regions of Italy

Population and Age Distribution

National Holidays in Italy 2012

In Italy, the summer month of August is when most Italians go on their annual leave. Most Italians have 5 weeks of holiday per year and school is closed from 10 to 12 weeks over the summer (from the second half of June to the beginning of September). This can affect the response rate of your studies in Italy, as might the dates above.

In addition, local feast days are held on a particular day of the year in honour of town patron saints, generally without closure of shops and offices.

Fun Facts

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Italian women spend 3 hours and 40 minutes per day more than men doing unpaid work (cooking, cleaning, caring for children, etc.)

Nice to Know about Italy

The OECD has found that less than 58% of working-age Italians are employed, partially due to the low labour force participation of women in that country. Also an indication as to why women may do so much more unpaid work than men.

Rome is the largest city in Italy as well as the country’s capital and Milan, one of the fashion capitals of the world, is next. The majority of the Italian population lives in urban areas and in the northern part of the country; however there is a substantial number of people living in the south. The climate of Italy is as diverse as the cuisine as one travels from region to region.

Italy enjoys a public health care system that is ranked as one of the best in the world, the proportion of spending on Healthcare is higher than average at 9% of the country’s GDP. While Italians have top-notch access to health care, the system is bogged down by the effects of obesity – chronic ailments, diabetes II, heart disease, and high blood pressure, to name a few. Thirty-two percent of adults are reported to be overweight, while almost ten percent of them have been identified as obese.

Italy has a high standard of education and students have the choice between public and private institutions of study. Multiple journals and newspapers have ranked Milan’s Bocconi University amongst the top 20 best in the world for its MBA and executive education programs, business school and value for money. The University of Milan, the Polytechnic University of Turin and the University of Rome La Sapienza have also been given international attention for excellence. The University of Bologna is world-renowned as the oldest college in the western world, it was established in 1088.