The Population of the Vatican

Since the Vatican City State is a sovereign state it has its own citizenship rules and regulations. Vatican City State is truly an extraordinary State in many aspects. One of these aspects is its exclusive population. Unlike other countries citizenship in the Vatican is not granted by birth but by appointment. Normally the citizenship is terminated when the appointment is over. The Vatican Citizenship is extended also to spouses and close family (parents or descendants) of the Vatican citizen, but only if they are actually living together. People who longer have Vatican citizenship but posses no other citizenship automatically acquire Italian citizenship according to Italian law.

Now let's talk about the numbers: there are no official statistics yet estimations of the Vatican's population range from 800 to 900. There were 826 people living in Vatican City State in 2009 according to an estimation from that year. Some Vatican citizens do not live in the territory of the Vatican but serve in the Holy See's diplomatic service in embassies outside of the Vatican (Nunciatures). Vatican State city citizenship is one of the most exclusive citizenships in the world.

Vatican City also has some residents who have the right to live in the city state but do not have a citizenship.Some of these residents are temporary while others are permanent. The status of resident is a new one. It was only established in 2011 following a new law enacted by Pope Benedict the 16th called the "law concerning citizenship, residency and access". In March 2011 there were 572 Vatican citizens but only 220 of them were actually living in Vatican City. All the other citizens were members of the Holy See's diplomatic staff.

The Vatican's citizenship consists of two main groups: members of clergy and the soldiers of the Pontifical Swiss Guard. Essentially this means that all the residents of the Vatican City State are Catholic as all members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard must be catholic in order to recruit. The Vatican also has many Laymen working for the state that do not reside in it. Most of these Laymen live in Rome and are Italian Citizens.Vatican City doesn't have an official language. Unlike the Holy See that uses Latin for its official communications, Vatican City uses Italian for its legislation and communications.

Vatican City State has a minuscule female population. Even though the Vatican's Population is predominantly male there are a small number of nuns and lay women living in Vatican City.In Statistics published in the year 2011 it was mentioned that there were 32 Women Citizens in Vatican City State at the time. Of these women 31 were laywoman and one was a Nun.