South Italy

South Italy Italia meridionale (Italian) Sud Italia (Italian)
Country	Italy
Regions	List Abruzzo Apulia Basilicata Calabria Campania Molise
Area
• Total	73,223 km2 (28,272 sq mi)
Population [1]
• Estimate  (2022)	13,430,686
Languages
– Official language	Italian
– Official linguistic minorities[2]	Arbëresh Calabrian Greek Griko dialect Serbo-Croatian
– Regional languages	Neapolitan

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:

• Abruzzo
• Apulia
• Basilicata
• Calabria
• Campania
• Molise

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.

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).

In 2022, the population resident in south Italy amounts to 13,430,686 inhabitants.^[1]

Region	Capital	Inhabitants
Abruzzo	L'Aquila	1,269,860
Apulia	Bari	3,900,852
Basilicata	Potenza	536,659
Calabria	Catanzaro	1,841,300
Campania	Naples	5,592,175
Molise	Campobasso	289,840

Below is the list of the population residing in 2022 in municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants:^[1]

#	Municipality	Region	Inhabitants
1	Naples	Campania	913,462
2	Bari	Apulia	316,015
3	Taranto	Apulia	188,098
4	Reggio Calabria	Calabria	170,951
5	Foggia	Apulia	145,348
6	Salerno	Campania	127,186
7	Giugliano in Campania	Campania	123,679
8	Pescara	Abruzzo	118,657
9	Andria	Apulia	97,146
10	Lecce	Apulia	94,517
11	Barletta	Apulia	92,427
12	Catanzaro	Calabria	84,670
13	Brindisi	Apulia	82,694
14	Torre del Greco	Campania	80,508
15	Pozzuoli	Campania	76,331
16	Corigliano-Rossano	Calabria	74,066
17	Casoria	Campania	74,021
18	Caserta	Campania	72,805
19	Altamura	Apulia	69,880
20	L'Aquila	Abruzzo	69,558
21	Lamezia Terme	Calabria	67,026
22	Potenza	Basilicata	64,406
23	Cosenza	Calabria	63,760
24	Castellammare di Stabia	Campania	62,772
25	Afragola	Campania	61,712
26	Matera	Basilicata	59,685
27	Crotone	Calabria	58,445
28	Acerra	Campania	58,322
29	Marano di Napoli	Campania	57,777
30	Molfetta	Apulia	57,329
31	Cerignola	Apulia	56,978
32	Benevento	Campania	56,201
33	Trani	Apulia	54,941
34	Manfredonia	Apulia	53,902
35	Bisceglie	Apulia	53,534
36	Montesilvano	Abruzzo	53,275
37	Bitonto	Apulia	53,168
38	Avellino	Campania	52,198
39	Portici	Campania	52,054
40	Teramo	Abruzzo	51,548
41	Cava de' Tirreni	Campania	50,539
42	Ercolano	Campania	50,124

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.^[3]

• National Institute of Statistics (Italy)
• NUTS statistical regions of Italy
• Italian NUTS level 1 regions:
  • Northwest Italy
  • Northeast Italy
  • Insular Italy
• Northern Italy
• Central Italy
• Southern Italy