South Italy
Statistical region in Italy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Country |  Italy |
| Regions | |
| Area | |
• Total | 73,799.56 km2 (28,494.17 sq mi) |
| Population | |
• Total | 13,339,994 |
| • Density | 180.7598/km2 (468.1657/sq mi) |
| Languages | |
| – Official language | Italian |
| – Official linguistic minorities[4] | |
| – Regional languages | |
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
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
| Region | Capital | Population | 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
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]
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1861 | 6,614,467 | — |
| 1871 | 6,983,465 | +5.6% |
| 1881 | 7,417,653 | +6.2% |
| 1901 | 8,297,080 | +11.9% |
| 1911 | 8,821,151 | +6.3% |
| 1921 | 9,341,451 | +5.9% |
| 1931 | 9,799,622 | +4.9% |
| 1936 | 10,243,425 | +4.5% |
| 1951 | 11,922,652 | +16.4% |
| 1961 | 12,435,638 | +4.3% |
| 1971 | 12,719,751 | +2.3% |
| 1981 | 13,552,281 | +6.5% |
| 1991 | 13,922,850 | +2.7% |
| 2001 | 13,914,865 | −0.1% |
| 2011 | 13,977,431 | +0.4% |
| 2021 | 13,512,083 | −3.3% |
| Source: ISTAT[9][10] | ||
Largest cities
Below is the list of the most populous cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants:
Immigration
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
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]