APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200080001-6
Area Brief
LAND (U/OU):
- Size: 116,300 sq. mi.
- Use: 50% cultivated, 17% meadow and pasture, 21% forest, 3% unused but potentially productive, 9% waste or urban (1970)
- Land boundaries: 1,058 mi.
WATER (U/OU):
- Limits of territorial waters (claimed): 6 n. mi.; fishing, 12 n. mi.
- Coastline: 3,105 mi.
PEOPLE (U/OU):
- Population: 54,588,000 (estimated) de jure population as of 1 July 1973; density 168 persons per square mile; 52% live in communes of 20,000 or more inhabitants
- Ethnic divisions: Over 99% Italian, with small German-, French-, and Slovene-Italian communities
- Language: Over 99% speak Italian as native tongue; German-speaking community in Bolzano Province is largest minority; small Slovene-speaking group in Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region; small but significant French-speaking minority and Valle d'Aosta Region.
- Religion: Over 99% nominally Roman Catholic; Protestants, about 300,000, Jews, approximately 10,000.
- Literacy: 95% of the population age 6 and over (1972 estimate)
- Labor force: 18,831,000 (January 1973); 16% agriculture, 42% industry, 38% other; 4% unemployed; underemployment, particularly in southern Italy, remains widespread, estimated (mid-1972) 230,000 temporary emigrants working abroad; 1.5 million Italians employed in other Western European countries.
- Organized labor: Approximately 30% of the labor force (1971)
GOVERNMENT (U/OU):
- Republic, bicameral Parliament, cabinet responsible to Parliament
- Universal suffrage; multiparty political system
- Unstable governing coalitions
- 20 regions, 91 provinces; centrally appointed prefects
- Communist party membership, about 1.5 million
- Member of U.N. and GATT, IBRD, and IMF, and of OECD, NATO, EEC, ECSC, and EURATOM
ECONOMY (U/OU):
- GNP: $118.6 billion (1972), $2,188 per capita, 63.6% consumption, 20.9% investment, 13.7% government, net foreign balance 1.8% (1971 provisional) 1972 growth rate 3.2%, 1963 constant prices (converted at 581.5 lira = US$1)
- Agriculture: Important producer of fruits and vegetables; main crops cereals, potatoes, olives, 95% self-sufficient; food shortages; fats, meat, fish, and eggs; caloric intake 3,100 calories per capita (1970)
- Fishing: Catch 391,200 metric tons (1971), $196,588,000 in landings (1969), exports $22 million (1972), imports $128 million (1972) converted at 581.5 lira = $1
- Major industries: Machinery and transportation equipment, iron and steel, chemicals, food processing, textiles
- Shortages: Coal, fuels, minerals
- Crude steel: 16.7 million metric tons produced 1972; 308 kilograms per capita
- Electric power: 37 million kw. capacity (1972); 128 billion kw.-hr. produced (1972), 2,362 kw.-kr. per capita.
- Exports: $18.6 billion (f.o.b., 1972; converted at 581.5 lira = US$1); principal items: machinery and transport equipment, textiles, footwear, foodstuffs, chemicals
- Imports: $19.3 billion (c.i.f., 1972; converted at 581.5 lira = US$1); principal items: machinery and transport equipment, foodstuffs, ferrous and nonferrous metals, wool, cotton, petroleum
- Major trade partners: (1972) 22% West Germany, 9% U.S., 15% France, 4% U.K., 4% Belgium-Luxembourg, 5% Netherlands, 3% Switzerland; 45% EC; 12% EFTA; 5% USSR and Communist countries of Eastern Europe
- Aid:
- Economic: U.S., $3,986.6 million (FY46-72), $22.3 million authorized FY72; IBRD, $303 million authorized through FY72, none since FY65; International Finance Corporation, $1 million authorized through FY72, none since FY60
- Military: U.S., $2,479.5 million (FY46-72), $62 million authorized in FY68 (Export-Import Bank credits), none since 1968
- Monetary conversion rate: Commercial and financial lira floating; value on 30 March 1973; 1 commercial lira = US$0.1696; 1 financial lira = US$0.1720
- Fiscal year: Calendar year
COMMUNICATIONS (C):
- Railroads: 12,688 route miles, 10,005 route miles, 9,910 standard gage, 4,927 electrified; 95 narrow gage; owned by Italian Government. 2,683 route miles (1,392 standard gage, 696 electrified; 1,291 narrow gage, 387 electrified) owned by municipalities or private companies
- Highways: 179,000 miles; Autostrade 3,000, state highways 25,750, provincial highways 57,000, communal highways 93,250. 159,000 miles concrete, bitumen, or stone block; 15,500 miles gravel and crushed stone; 4,500 miles earth roads
- Inland waterways: 1,538 miles navigable; 702 miles are rivers, 529 are canals, 307 are lake routes
- Pipelines: 1,100 miles crude oil, 900 miles refined petroleum products, 6,000 miles natural gas lines
- Ports: 16 major and 22 significant minor ports
- Merchant marine: 649 ships of 1,000 g.r.t. and over, totaling 7,607,582 g.r.t. or 11,265,205 d.w.t.
- Civil air: 138 major transport aircraft
- Airfields: 150 usable; 80 have permanent-surface runways; 2 have runways over 12,900 feet, 25 have runways 8,000-11,999 feet, 17 have runways 4,000-7,999 feet, 79 sites, 11 seaplane stations
- Telecommunications: Modern, efficient system; almost 10.8 million telephones, 12.6 million radio, 10.85 million TV receivers; 86 AM, 550 FM, 855 TV stations; 9 coaxial, 11 submarine cables; 3 communication satellite ground stations
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200080001-6
