Countries

Vatican City

Citation Formats

General Reference

Geography Atlas. "Vatican City." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://geography.interactiveatlas.org/countries/vatican-city.

APA Style

Geography Atlas. (n.d.). Vatican City. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://geography.interactiveatlas.org/countries/vatican-city

BibTeX

@misc{geographyatlas-vatican-city,
  author = {Geography Atlas},
  title = {Vatican City},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://geography.interactiveatlas.org/countries/vatican-city},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Vatican City is a landlocked sovereign city-state in Southern Europe, an enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. At 0.49 square kilometers it is the smallest country in the world by both area and population, with about 882 residents as of 2024. It came into existence as an independent state via the Lateran Treaty, signed 11 February 1929 between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy. The pope exercises principal legislative, executive and judicial power over the state. Its capital is Vatican City itself.

Facts

Capital

Vatican City 1

The infobox names the city-state itself as its own capital; Vatican City has no separate administrative capital.

Population

882 1

2024 estimate, from Vatican City's own Wikipedia infobox.

Population Estimate Year

2024 1

Area (sq km)

0.49 1

Infobox figure (49 hectares), per the infobox's own footnote correcting an older 44-hectare figure the lead paragraph still repeats from the 1945-1946 De Agostini Atlas.

Independence or Founding Year

1929 1

The independent state of Vatican City came into existence via the Lateran Treaty, signed 11 February 1929 between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy.

Cross-Tradition Connections