South Italy

region of Italy

South Italy (Italian: Italia meridionale or just Sud Italia) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a NUTS1 level region.

South Italy
Italia meridionale  (Italian)
Sud Italia  (Italian)
Map of Italy, highlighting South Italy
CountryItaly
Regions
Area
 • Total73,223 km2 (28,272 sq mi)
Population
 • Estimate 
(2022)
13,430,686
Languages 
 – Official languageItalian
 – Official linguistic minorities[2]
 – Regional languages

South Italy is defined only for statistical and for some elections. It should not to be confused with the Mezzogiorno, or Southern Italy, which generally refers to all the southern half of the Italian State, including the island of Sicily and sometimes even Sardinia.[3] The two islands form a distinct statistical region.region.

Geography

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South Italy borders to the north with Central Italy (to the northwest with Lazio and to the northeast with Marche). The Adriatic Sea is to the east and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west, and the Ionian Sea to the south.

The Apennines are mountain ranges that goes from north to south through South Italy. The highest point in the region is the Corno Grande (42°18′10″N 13°33′56″E / 42.30278°N 13.56556°E / 42.30278; 13.56556 (Ortles)) (part of the Gran Sasso) that is 2,912 metres (9,554 ft) high.[4]

Regions

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Central Italy encompasses six of the 20 regions of Italy, including 24 provinces and 1,789 comuniː

Region Capital Population[5]
(2016)
Area[6]
(km²)
Density
(inh./km²)
Provinces Comuni
Abruzzo L'Aquila 1,326,513 10,831.84 122.5 4 305
Apulia Bari 4,077,166 19,540.90 208.6 6 258
Basilicata Potenza 573,694 10,073.32 57.0 2 131
Calabria Catanzaro 1,970,521 15,221.90 129.5 5 409
Campania Naples 5,850,850 13,670.95 428.0 5 550
Molise Campobasso 312,027 4,460.65 70.0 2 136
Total 14,110,771 73,799.56 191.2 24 1,789

The comuni with more than 100,000 persons living in them areː

Comune Population[5] Province Region
Naples 974,074 Naples Campania
Bari 326,344 Bari Apulia
Taranto 201,100 Taranto Apulia
Reggio Calabria 183,035 Reggio Calabria Calabria
Foggia 151,991 Foggia Apulia
Salerno 135,261 Salerno Campania
Giugliano in Campania 122,974 Naples Campania
Pescara 121,014 Pescara Abruzzo
Andria 100,861 Barletta-Andria-Trani Apulia
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References

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  1. "Bilancio demografico e popolazione residente per sesso al 31 dicembre 2022" (in Italian). Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  2. "Legge 482". Webcitation.org. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 2015-10-17.
  3. "Top 5 places to visit in the South of Italy". PR Fire. Archived from the original on 2021-04-23. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
  4. "Corno Grande, Italy". Peakbagger.com. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Cite error: The named reference istat-demo was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  6. "Regioni italiane" (in Italian). Tuttitalia.it. Retrieved 27 January 2017.