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South Italy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the territory and its history, see Southern Italy. For the EU constituency, see Southern Italy (European Parliament constituency).

South Italy
Italia meridionale (Italian)
Sud Italia (Italian)
Statistical region
Map of Italy, highlighting South Italy
Country Italy
Regions
Area
[1]
 • Total
73,799.56 km2 (28,494.17 sq mi)
Population
 (2026)[2][3]
 • Total
13,339,994
 • Density180.7598/km2 (468.1657/sq mi)
Languages 
 – Official languageItalian
 – Official linguistic minorities[4]
 – Regional languages

South Italy (Italian: Italia meridionale or Sud Italia) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency. South Italy encompasses six of the country's 20 regions:

South Italy is defined only for statistical and electoral purposes. It should not be confused with the Mezzogiorno, or Southern Italy, which refers to the areas of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (once including the southern half of the Italian peninsula and Sicily) with the usual addition of the Western Mediterranean island of Sardinia. The latter and Sicily form a distinct statistical region, called Insular Italy.

Geography

[edit]

South Italy borders central Italy to the northwest, while it is washed by the Adriatic Sea to the northeast, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the southwest.

The territory of South Italy is predominantly hilly and mountainous. The largest plains are the Tavoliere delle Puglie (second largest plain on the Italian peninsula), the Tavoliere salentino, the Campania plain, the Sele plain, the Metaponto plain, the Sibari plain, and the Gioia Tauro plain. It is crossed from north to south by the Apennine Mountains, whose highest mountain is the Gran Sasso d'Italia (2,912 m or 9,554 ft).

Regions

[edit]
Region Capital Population

(2026)[5][6]

Area

(km²)[1]

Density

(inh/km²)

Abruzzo L'Aquila 1,267,222 10,831.84 117.0
Apulia Bari 3,865,277 19,540.90 197.8
Basilicata Potenza 525,281 10,073.32 52.1
Calabria Catanzaro 1,827,571 15,221.90 120.1
Campania Naples 5,568,703 13,670.95 407.3
Molise Campobasso 285,940 4,460.65 64.1

Demographics

[edit]

As of 2026, the population is 13,339,994, of which 49% are male, and 51% are female. Minors make up 15.1% of the population, and seniors make up 24.1%.[7][8]

Historical population
YearPop.±%
18616,614,467—    
18716,983,465+5.6%
18817,417,653+6.2%
19018,297,080+11.9%
19118,821,151+6.3%
19219,341,451+5.9%
19319,799,622+4.9%
193610,243,425+4.5%
195111,922,652+16.4%
196112,435,638+4.3%
197112,719,751+2.3%
198113,552,281+6.5%
199113,922,850+2.7%
200113,914,865−0.1%
201113,977,431+0.4%
202113,512,083−3.3%
Source: ISTAT[9][10]

Largest cities

[edit]
Naples
Bari
Taranto
Reggio Calabria
Foggia

Below is the list of the most populous cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants:

City Region Population

(2026)[11][12]

Naples Campania 905,050
Bari Apulia 316,248
Taranto Apulia 185,112
Reggio Calabria Calabria 167,925
Foggia Apulia 145,078
Salerno Campania 125,323
Giugliano in Campania Campania 125,018
Pescara Abruzzo 118,487
Andria Apulia 96,520
Lecce Apulia 94,387
Barletta Apulia 92,067
Catanzaro Calabria 82,708
Brindisi Apulia 81,181
Torre del Greco Campania 78,839
Pozzuoli Campania 74,665
Corigliano-Rossano Calabria 74,403
Casoria Campania 73,257
Caserta Campania 72,757
L'Aquila Abruzzo 70,803
Altamura Apulia 70,336
Lamezia Terme Calabria 67,005
Cosenza Calabria 63,449
Potenza Basilicata 63,403
Castellammare di Stabia Campania 61,937
Afragola Campania 61,581
Matera Basilicata 59,368
Acerra Campania 58,585
Crotone Calabria 58,136
Marano di Napoli Campania 57,631
Molfetta Apulia 57,016
Cerignola Apulia 56,711
Benevento Campania 55,330
Trani Apulia 54,731
Montesilvano Abruzzo 53,557
Bisceglie Apulia 53,242
Manfredonia Apulia 53,015
Bitonto Apulia 52,868
Avellino Campania 51,819
Teramo Abruzzo 51,400
Portici Campania 51,213

Immigration

[edit]

As of 2025, of the known countries of birth of 13,169,842 residents, the most numerous are: Italy (12,447,907 – 94.5%), Romania (107,468 – 0.8%).[13][14]

Economy

[edit]

The gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was 271.1 billion euro in 2018, accounting for 15.4% of Italy's economic output. The GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 19,300 euro, or 64% of the EU27 average in the same year.[15]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Superficie di Comuni Province e Regioni italiane al 9 ottobre 2011" (in Italian). ISTAT.
  2. ^ "Resident population by age, sex and marital status on 1st January 2026". demo.istat.it. ISTAT. 1 January 2026. Retrieved 1 April 2026. (On the search form, choose the statistical region of the municipality in the Area section, the Region, the Province, and the name of the Municipality)
  3. ^ "Resident population by age, sex and marital status on 1st January 2026". demo.istat.it. ISTAT. 1 January 2026. Retrieved 1 April 2026.The file URL linking on technical dataset.
  4. ^ "Legge 482". Webcitation.org. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  5. ^ "Resident population by age, sex and marital status on 1st January 2026". demo.istat.it. ISTAT. 1 January 2026. Retrieved 1 April 2026. (On the search form, choose the statistical region of the municipality in the Area section, the Region, the Province, and the name of the Municipality)
  6. ^ "Resident population by age, sex and marital status on 1st January 2026". demo.istat.it. ISTAT. 1 January 2026. Retrieved 1 April 2026.The file URL linking on technical dataset.
  7. ^ "Resident population by age, sex and marital status on 1st January 2026". demo.istat.it. ISTAT. 1 January 2026. Retrieved 1 April 2026. (On the search form, choose the statistical region of the municipality in the Area section, the Region, the Province, and the name of the Municipality)
  8. ^ "Resident population by age, sex and marital status on 1st January 2026". demo.istat.it. ISTAT. 1 January 2026. Retrieved 1 April 2026.The file URL linking on technical dataset.
  9. ^ "Popolazione residente dei comuni. Censimenti dal 1861 al 1991" [Resident population of the municipalities. Censuses from 1861 to 1991] (PDF) (in Italian). ISTAT. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 November 2025.
  10. ^ "Resident population - Time series". ISTAT.
  11. ^ "Resident population by age, sex and marital status on 1st January 2026". demo.istat.it. ISTAT. 1 January 2026. Retrieved 1 April 2026. (On the search form, choose the statistical region of the municipality in the Area section, the Region, the Province, and the name of the Municipality)
  12. ^ "Resident population by age, sex and marital status on 1st January 2026". demo.istat.it. ISTAT. 1 January 2026. Retrieved 1 April 2026.The file URL linking on technical dataset.
  13. ^ "Resident population by sex, municipality and individual citizenship or country of birth from year 2002". demo.istat.it. ISTAT. 1 January 2025. Retrieved 27 February 2025. (Click on 'View by country of birth', and on the search form, choose the statistical region of the municipality in the Area section, the Region, the Province, and the name of the Municipality)
  14. ^ "Resident population by sex, municipality and individual citizenship or country of birth from year 2002". demo.istat.it. ISTAT. 1 January 2025. Retrieved 27 February 2025.The file URL linking on technical dataset.
  15. ^ "Regional GDP per capita ranged from 30% to 263% of the EU average in 2018". Eurostat.

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