982

ITALY

Number of proprietors in Italy, 1901 : proprietors of lauds, 1,045,113 ; of buildings, 823,442 ; of lands and buildings, 2,241,578 ; total, 4,110,133. Proprietors of lands and buildiiDgs (4,110,133), per 100 of population, 12'7 ; proprietors of lands (3,286,691), per square mile, 297.

Movement of Population, Births, deaths, and marriages (provisional figures for 1911): —

MaiTiages

Births Living

Stillborn

Deaths exclusive

of the Stillborn

700,333

770,0351

735,460

682,459

742,452

Year

Legitimate

Illegiti- mate and Exposed

Total

Surplus ol Births

1907 1908 1909 1910 1911

260,104 282,932 266,101 269,024 259,764

1,006,762 1,081,976 1,061,362 1,087,795

55,571 56,726 54,469 56,615

1,062,333 1,138,702 1,115,831 1,144,410 1,093,661

48,023 51,465 50,290 50,337 47,485

362,000 368,667 377,371 461,951 351,209

1 Including 77,000 killed in the earthquake of December 28, 1908.

Emigrants. — Total number in 1911, 533,844, of whom 271,065 went to other European countries or those bordering on the Mediterranean, and 262,779 to countries overseas.

The number of Italians who returned to Italy was : — In 1910, 161,000 (of whom 93,000 were from the United States) ; in 1911, 219,000 (of whom 140,000 were from the United States).

The number of Italians abroad was officially estimated in 1910 at about 5,558,000. In 1901 a Commission, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was established for the direction of the Government service relating to emigration. There is now regular inspection, and a medical officer watches over the emi- grants while at sea.

Principal Towns.

The numbers of inhabitants at the different centres do not in Italian statistics afford a sufficient basis for distinguishing between the urban and rural population. In Northern Italy the population is scattered over the country and there are few centres. In Southern Italy and in the islands the country people live in the towns, coming and going to cultivate their own plots of land ; consequently there are many populous centres where, if numbers alone were considered, the population would be regarded as urban, though it is, in truth, almost exclusively rural. The following statement gives the classifica- tion of communes according to resident population in 1911 : —

Number

Population

Per 1,00<

Communes with population :

over 100,000 . . .

13

3,946,574

109-8

from 50,001 to 100,000

30

1,981,928

55-1

■ ,, 30,001 ,, 50,000

50

1,925,560

53-6

,, 20,001 ,, 30,000

100

2,366,435

65-8

„ 15,001 ,, 20,000

98

1,662,751

46-2

others

. 8,032

24,075,829

669-5

Total . , 8,323 . 35,959,077 . 1,000-0 The communal population of the capitals of provinces was as follows on

June 10. 1911 :—