Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (Istat) is the Italian national statistical institute.
It was created in 1926 to collect and organize essential data about the nation. Administering the census is one of its activities.
Since 1989 Istat has also held statutory responsibility for the coordination and standardization of official statistics collected or published under the aegis of the national statistical system SISTAN, whose membership includes the statistical offices of ministries, national agencies, regions, provinces, communes, chambers of commerce, and similar bodies.
The most recent census was held on October 21, 2001. It showed a total resident population of 56,995,744 persons living on a land area of 301,328.45 km² (116,343.565 sq mi).
