10 fascinating facts about the Vatican City

With only 0.44 square kilometers and about 825 residents, the Vatican is the world’s smallest country. You can walk across it in under an hour, and it sits entirely within Rome.

Despite having under 1,000 residents, the Vatican has the world’s highest per-capita crime rate, driven by visitor-related pickpocketing, purse snatching, and shoplifting, leading to officials urging tourists to stay alert.

The Vatican’s residents drink the most wine per capita, averaging 74 liters yearly. High intake stems from frequent communal meals daily and easy access to affordable, duty-free wine from the city’s only supermarket.

The 135-member Pontifical Swiss Guard has protected the Pope since 1506. Known for their striped uniforms, recruits must be male, Swiss, Christian, 19–30, 5'8", and trained in the military.

With no hospitals or delivery rooms, no one is born a Vatican citizen. Citizenship depends on serving the Holy See and extends to immediate family, but ends once the appointment concludes.

Italian is the official working language of Vatican City, but the Holy See’s official language is Latin. As custodian of Latin, the Vatican Bank even offers an ATM option with instructions entirely in Latin.

Vatican City has the world’s shortest railway, featuring two 300-meter tracks and a single station, Città Vaticano. Built under Pope Pius XI, it’s used only for transporting goods, not passengers.

In 1981, the Vatican acquired the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, one of the world’s largest. Located on Mount Graham in Arizona, it serves as the Vatican’s primary site for astronomical research.