An analysis published this Saturday in the newspaper Corriere della Sera, based on the latest report from the National Institute of Statistics (Istat), says that as a result of this phenomenon, by the end of 2022 the population was estimated at 58 million 851 thousand Italians, 179 thousand fewer inhabitants than in the previous year.
In this country, one in four people is over 65, accounting for 24.1 percent of its population, a significant increase compared to 23.8 percentage points in 2021.
The under-14s have declined and are estimated at 7,334,000, 12.5 percent of the total, down 136,000 from last year, while the country already has 22,000 centenarians, a new record, a number that is in has tripled in the last two decades.
For this reason, Italy is now the oldest country in Europe and ranks second in the world, only behind Japan, the study emphasizes.
The number of immigrants rose slightly by around 20,000 people to 5,500,000 foreigners, up 3.9 percent from 2021, but despite this increase, it is not halting the population decline.
But what worries analysts most is the staggering drop in births, as there were just around 393,000 births in 2022, a new all-time low since the national unification of 1871, with a negative natural balance of 320,000, far from offsetting the 713,000 deaths recorded in the have occurred over the past year.
According to the latest statistical data, the fertility rate of 1.23 children per woman is well below the reproduction threshold of 2.1, while the average age of childbearing continues to rise and is now around 32 years.
Negative demographics pose a challenge for the country, say the experts, who propose among the measures to reverse “an increase in family and maternity services, as well as greater flexibility at work and a more welcoming and sustainable one”.
ro/ort