Irrigated land: 27,100 sq km (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: regional risks include landslides, mudflows, avalanches, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, flooding; land subsidence in Venice
Environment - current issues: air pollution from industrial emissions such as sulfur dioxide; coastal and inland rivers polluted from industrial and agricultural effluents; acid rain damaging lakes; inadequate industrial waste treatment and disposal facilities
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
Pollution-Sulphur 85, Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile
Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty,
Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species,
Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants,
Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol
Geography - note: strategic location dominating central Mediterranean as well as southern sea and air approaches to Western Europe
@Italy:People
Population: 57,634,327 (July 2000 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 14% (male 4,220,973; female 3,977,962) 15-64 years: 68% (male 19,413,219; female 19,596,668) 65 years and over: 18% (male 4,297,962; female 6,127,543) (2000 est.)
Population growth rate: 0.09% (2000 est.)
Birth rate: 9.13 births/1,000 population (2000 est.)