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Population | Ann.Gr. | Density | |
2000 | 57,297,886 | -0.01% | 190 per sq. km. |
2010 | 55,781,181 | -0.35% | 185 per sq. km. |
2025 | 51,269,528 | -0.63% | 170 per sq. km. |
Over 4 million expatriate Italians. Also up to � million illegal immigrants.
Capital Rome 3.8 mill. Other major cities: Milan 3.8m; Naples 3.1m; Turin 2.2m; Palermo 1.2m; Genoa 900,000. Urbanites 67%.
Indigenous 94.7%.
Italian 93.5%. Deep cultural differences between the north and south and with a wide variety of regional cultures, dialects and languages. Main regional groups: Lombard 9m; Neapolitan/Calabrian 7.7m; Sicilian 5.1m; Piedmontese 4.3m; Venetian 4.5m; Ligurian 1.6m; Sardinian(4) 1.7m; Friulian/Ladin 1.2m.
Other 1.2%. Albanian 350,000; Tyrolese (German) 280,000; Romani(3) 35,000; Greek 20,000. (These are minority communities which have been in Italy for centuries.)
Non-indigenous peoples 5.3%
European 1.2%. Albanian 130,000; French 120,000; Greek 120,000; Slovenian 100,000; Romanian 60,000; etc. (Immigrants since WWII.)
Other 4.1%. Moroccan 150,000; Filipino 62,000; Ecuadorian 62,000; Chinese 50,000.
Literacy 98%. Official language Italian, but vigorous use of nine regional languages akin to Italian. All languages 33. Languages with Scriptures 7Bi 3NT 14por.
Highly industrialized, Italy is the world's 7th largest economy. Very affluent in the north, but much poorer in the south. The private sector has resisted the controls of the highly centralized and cumbersome economic structures, but these are being changed through privatization. The black (illegal) economy and the inherited inefficiency of public administration reduce the country's competitiveness in world markets. HDI 0.900; 19th/174. Public debt 125% of GNP. Income/person $20,170 (64% of USA).
United as a single state in 1870. Republican democracy since 1946. Weak and unstable succession of 60 governments since World War II, but with an underlying social stability. Member of the EU. The political paralysis, widespread corruption, economic differences between north and south, unchecked crimes of the Mafia and its control of much economic activity, and the total discrediting of Italy's politicians and political parties came to a head in 1992. There have since been some improvements which enabled Italy to join the Euro-currency in 1998.
Roman Catholicism ceased to be the state religion in 1984. All religions have equal freedom before the law but not in practice.
Religions | Population % | Adherents | Ann.Gr. |
Christian | 77.35 | 44,319,915 | -0.4% |
non-Religious/other | 20.04 | 11,482,496 | +1.1% |
Muslim | 2.40 | 1,375,149 | +2.7% |
Buddhist | 0.09 | 51,568 | +8.4% |
Jewish | 0.06 | 34,379 | +3.7% |
Baha'i | 0.03 | 17,189 | +8.4% |
Hindu | 0.03 | 15,000 | n.a. |
Trans-bloc Groupings | pop.% | ,000 | Ann.Gr. |
Evangelical | 0.9 | 512 | +3.4% |
Charismatic | 3.8 | 2,181 | +0.4% |
Pentecostal | 0.5 | 313 | +4.7% |
Missionaries from Italy
P,I,A 217 in 19 agencies to 18 countries: Italy 165, Albania 12.
Missionaries to Italy
P,I,A 549 in 94 agencies from 29 countries: USA 286, UK 56, Germany 36, Switzerland 31, Korea 23.
1 After years of little growth in evangelical churches, there is an increase in the number of believers in Calabria, Sicily and Campania/Naples.
2 Emerging cooperation between churches to reach Italy and beyond.
1 This great and gifted nation has decisively affected Western and world culture in legal systems (Roman law), language (Latin), culture (Renaissance art, music), and innovation (clothes, cars), yet is in deep spiritual need. After the fourth century collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church became a political as well as a spiritual power, deeply impacting the politics of Europe, the Muslim World (the Crusades) and Italy itself. The Church's temporal power, though reduced since 1870, was in conflict with its spiritual responsibilities – destabilizing, dividing and impoverishing Italy in the process. Most Italians are Catholic in culture, but deeply cynical about the Church. Pray for the removal of the multiple barriers that conceal a true understanding of the gospel.
2 The Roman Catholic Church shows ambivalent signs of persistent crisis and renewed power. On the one hand, it has lost over 10 million to New Age thinking, cults, the occult and materialistic secularism. Church attendance is decreasing, as are the number of priests. Yet Catholic traditions and mindset continue to permeate every aspect of national and personal life. The Catholic charismatic movement is growing, though its allegiance to the Church weakens its potential for inner renewal. Pray for millions of Italians to turn from dead tradition to the living Lord Jesus.
3 The unresponsiveness of Italians. The last four decades of religious freedom have been met with indifference. Occultism is widespread, and there are reckoned to be 100,000 full-time consulting magicians – nearly three times the number of Catholic priests. Satanism is strong in the north, Turin being one of the global centres of its activities, which include praying for the removal of all evangelical missionaries from the country. The strong pre-Christian pagan powers have never been fully routed in 2,000 years.
4 Protestantism has had an 800-year history in Italy. The world's oldest Protestant denomination, the Waldensian Church, began in north Italy, but was subjected to terrible persecution for centuries. Italian Catholic bishops officially apologized for this in 1997. The Waldensian Church is now in federal union with the Methodists and some Baptists but rather influenced by deadening liberal theology. The Protestant witness is weak and divided, especially between the growing Pentecostal majority and non-Pentecostal minority. New churches are often begun through bitter splits rather than strategic church planting. Most congregations are small, introspective and largely ignorant of the biblical challenge to missions and the few large congregations in the south are committed to 'prosperity' teaching. Pray for revival that breaks down barriers of individualism, mistrust and doctrinal extremes and leads to cooperative outreach.
5 Signs of hope for the Church. Despite the limited response and discouraging spiritual climate, water these in prayer:
a) Increased, but limited, cooperation - with the formation of the Evangelical Alliance, and many small independent churches combining in several federations for closer working together.
b) A Christian magazine, Comunicazioni Cristiane, has done much to bridge the divisions within Italian Evangelicalism by giving a common platform for sharing news and vision for missions and for Italy.
c) The evangelistic efforts of the 1990s – the multiplication of Pentecostal churches, the AoG Decade of Harvest, Italia per Cristo, tent evangelism by Christ is the Answer and the Brethren, and YWAM's two outreach bases.
d) The birth in 1998 of Italy's first interdenominational evangelical missionary movement AMEN (Agenzia Missionaria Evangelo per le Nazioni). The challenge of Albania after 1990 has become a major focus for Italian churches.
e) Vision for the future. A saturation church-planting strategy was launched in the 1997 DAWN Conference – the aim: one church for every 5,000 people by 2010. This means increasing churches from 2,100 in 1997 to 11,860 by 2010.
6 The infamous Sicilian Mafia and Neapolitan Camorra have infiltrated every level of society. Legal and judicial attempts to destroy the power and influence of these criminal organizations are fraught with difficulty. Government leaders and Church authorities, even in the Vatican itself, have been subverted, and the attitudes of the general population poisoned by this evil system. Murder and extortion are commonplace – the latter netting an estimated US$23 billion annually. This money, and that gained from the lucrative global trade in drugs, is used to buy politicians, influence and even industries. Pray for those courageous few who risk their lives to fight the corruption and usher in a new and more effective government system. Pray for Italian society to be freed from this bondage and to be transformed by the power of the gospel.
7 The dearth of mature Italian Christian leaders in Protestant churches at both the national and pastoral level is crippling the advance of the gospel. Internal conflicts and scandals due to pride, money and power-seeking have harmed the witness. Pastors speak against papal domination in the Catholic Church, but often are papal in authority too! Pray for humility, brokenness and unity among the Lord's servants. Pray that the increasing emphasis on preaching inner holiness, family unity and the life of the local congregation may bear fruit in lives. Pray also for the five denominational and two interdenominational Bible schools and seminaries and for an increase in student numbers. The AoG Bible schools have 45 students, and the IBE (GEM) in Rome a smaller number. YWAM runs a six-month Discipleship Training School. IFED runs courses at seminary level for training mature leadership and attracts some of Italy's brightest servants of God with 60 students in 2001.
8 The most unreached sectors of the population:
a) Only 1,500 of Italy's 33,500 communities have an established evangelical witness.
b) The northeastern Veneto Region with the cities of Venice, Padova and Vicenza has 4,437,000 people, but maybe no more than 38 churches and 2,000 evangelical Christians – mainly AoG, Brethren and three congregations related to ECM.
c) Sardinia, a Mediterranean island with a limited autonomy, has 1,660,000 people with their own language and culture. There are only about 14-15 evangelical churches, and a few Christian workers. Suspicion of outsiders, fear, vendettas, the occult and the activities of JWs all make any evangelistic outreach difficult.
d) The wealthy, materialistic northern cities of Milan, Turin, Bologna and Venice have few churches. Many cities and towns have no evangelical witness at all. The northern provinces of Umbria, Trentino, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna have less than 0.1% Evangelicals.
e) The 1,600,000 students in 48 universities are a needy mission field. There are only around 100 students linked to the GBU(IFES) in eight cities, and a few others with CCC. Occasional outreaches by OM and YWAM teams reach others. The second largest student body (117,000 in Milan) has no evangelical campus group.
f) An estimated 400,000 heroin addicts, with an increasing incidence of HIV+ infection, pose a desperate and demanding challenge only beginning to be met by Evangelicals (Betel, in 5 centres; Teen Challenge 2; AoG 1).
a) The minorities in the northeast. The Friulians, Ladins, Slovenes and South Tyrolean Germans all have their own distinctive cultures and languages, but little direct effort is being made to reach these staunchly traditional Catholics with the message of new life in Jesus.
b) The Greek and Croatian minorities in the south.
c) Albanians. The long-established Calabrian and Sicilian Albanians speak their own archaic dialects – but little specific long-term outreach has been made. Most are Orthodox or Catholic.
d) Muslims. They have grown rapidly through legal and illegal immigration to possibly over one million, 70% of whom are North African. The Muslim mosque in Rome is Europe's largest. There is little specific outreach to them. There is an Arabic Christian radio broadcast on 9 stations in Italy.
e) Africans from all over Africa, especially Eritrea, who have immigrated seeking work or fleeing war and famine. SIM has a small ministry to them and there is a lively group of five Eritrean churches. There are growing African-led churches among them.
f) Italy's long coastline has become a funnel for millions of illegal immigrants into the EU – many crossing the Adriatic Sea from Albania – a major source of Mafia revenue. Pray for all who seek to alleviate the stress of the desperate people entangled in this web of crime and minister to their spiritual needs.
10 The need for expatriate missionaries is great but the casualty rate has been unacceptably high in the past, with only 10% on average returning for a second term. Pressures from spiritual forces and entrenched opposition to the true gospel expose any personal inadequacies in a missionary. Pray out to the harvest field those with spiritual stamina, emotional maturity, cultural adaptability and God-given faith. Some significant groups (and number of expatriates) in the country are Brethren (59), TEAM (34), CBIM (25), YWAM (25), ECM (24), CLC (22), UFM (19), AoG (18), SBC (18), CCCI (14), GMU (13), WEC (9) and GEM (7). All mission groups, especially the interdenominational, have had traumatic histories. Ministries most needed are in discipleship and planting balanced, Bible-based churches.
11 Literature and Bible distribution have not had a wide impact due to the reluctance of Italians to read. There are about 14 Christian organizations with bookshops – including CLC with 22 full-time workers and 9 bookstores, and The Bible Society with Italy's largest Bible and literature centre. EHC has given out 62 million pieces of literature, visiting every home in the process. Pray for a hunger for God's Word and a desire for wholesome Christian literature.
12 Christian radio and TV has become a fruitful ministry since government controls on local broadcasting were relaxed. There are now hundreds of TV and radio stations and optic-fibre cable networks. Many international radio agencies (TWR), churches and agencies (Back to the Bible, ECM, GMV and WT) use both cable and local FM radio. TWR reaches 1.5 million daily; Back to the Bible is one of the largest media ministries in Italy. The JESUS film has been seen by nearly 10% of the population – mainly through TV. Pray for good cooperation, fruitful follow-up and effective church planting through these ministries.
Web links for Italy
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CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/it.html) | |
Country profile, with only very brief information on religion or society. | |
Brief, largely statistical information on geography, people, government, economy, and more. | |
New Tribes Mission - Italia (http://www.italia.ntm.org) | |
Italian Ministries (http://www.italianministries.org/) | |
A field network of missionaries in Italy. | |
A unique project to create a non-denominational, conservative national field body of like-minded evangelical missionaries, both expatriates and nationals. Providing support structures for participating missionaries. A legally constituted assocation with international representations. | |
Missione Per Te / Mission For You (http://www.MissionePerTe.it) | |
Italian language website for mobilizing and equipping Italian believers | |
Italian language website for mobilizing and equipping Italian believers with the goal of seeing more conversions, more disciples, more cell groups, and more health, multiplying evangelical churches. | |
World Infozone (http://www.worldinfozone.com/country.php?country=Italy) |
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