South Italy

For the territory and its history, see Southern Italy. For the EU constituency, see Southern Italy (European Parliament constituency).

South Italy
Italia meridionale (Italian)
Sud Italia (Italian)
Map of Italy, highlighting South Italy
CountryItaly
Regions
Area
 • Total
73,223 km2 (28,272 sq mi)
Population
[1]
 • Estimate 
(2022)
13,430,686
Languages 
 – Official languageItalian
 – Official linguistic minorities[2]
 – Regional languages

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 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.

  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 17 October 2015.