Vatican City
POPULATION 960
ROMAN CATHOLIC 100 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
The State of the Vatican City, occupying just 0.17 square miles in the center of Rome, is the world's smallest country. It stands on the Vatican Hill, west of the Tiber River and the famed Seven Hills of Rome. The terms Vatican City and the Holy See are often used interchangeably, but they are administratively and functionally distinct from each another. Vatican City is the name of the country, while the Holy See, located within Vatican City, is the central administrative body of the Roman Catholic Church. Vatican City is also the home of the pope, who is both the bishop of Rome and the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
For more than a thousand years the pope ruled various Papal States on the Italian Peninsula, but these lands were annexed during the reunification of Italy in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1870, following the conquest of Rome (including the remaining papal territories) by Italian forces, Rome became the capital of Italy. Pope Pius IX thereupon declared himself a prisoner of the Vatican. The independent Vatican City, with the pope as head of state, was created in 1929 as a result of the three Lateran Treaties signed by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and Pope Pius XI.
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