The proportion between the population over 65 and those under 15 is growing
Italy is an increasingly elderly country. This is confirmed by the first population census data released by Istat.
According to Italy's official research body, all age groups under 44 see their relative weight decrease compared to 2011. While the number of people aged 45 and over increases significantly, rising from 48,2% in 2011 to 53,5% in 2019.
The average age increased by two years compared to 2011, from 43 to 45 years. Campania, at 42 years old, is the region with the youngest population, followed by Trentino Alto Adige (43 years old), Sicily and Calabria (both 44 years old).
Liguria is confirmed as the region with the highest average age (49 years). Also in 1951, Campania and Liguria were the youngest and oldest regions, but for both, the average age was 13-14 years lower than that recorded in 2019.
The data was released this Wednesday (15), according to the newspaper La Repubblica.
Italy has five elderly people for every child
The progressive aging of the Italian population seems “even more evident compared to previous censuses”.
O Istat explains that “the number of elderly people per child went from less than one in 1951 to 5 in 2019 (3,8, in 2011)”: also the old age rate “increased significantly, from 33,5% in 1951 to almost 180% in 2019 (148,7% in 2001)”.
The youngest municipality is Orta di Atella, in the province of Caserta, with an average age of 35,3 years; the oldest is Head Band, in the province of Genova, where the average age exceeds 66 years.
Covid effect
“2020 is not over yet, but a reasonable assessment suggests that this year we will cross the border of 700 thousand deaths in total, which is a worrying figure because something like this last time, in Italy, had happened in 1944. We were in the middle of the Second World War”, he said Gian Carlo Blangiardo, president of Istat, Now on Rai Tre.
The numbers show the weight of the Covid pandemic on the Italian population. “In 2019 the number was 647 thousand deaths.”
Still according to Istat data, the largest city in Italy is Rome with 2,8 million inhabitants, while Morterone, in the province of Lecco, with 30 inhabitants, is the smallest municipality.
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