Italy has already seen consecutive years of population reduction and is looking for ways to encourage couples to have more children
Italy has confirmed itself as the oldest country in the European Union, with a rate of 168,9 people over 65 for every 100 young people under 15, a new national record.
The numbers, referring to January 1, 2018, were released this Thursday (11) by the National Statistics Institute (Istat) and provide further proof of the continued aging of the Italian population. The previous rate was 168,7 elderly people for every 100 young people.
“At a European level, Italy remains in first place in the decreasing ranking of old age index”, says Istat. One of the reasons is the low birth rate in the country, which reached 1,32 children per woman in 2018, a number well below the minimum sufficient to guarantee the maintenance of the population, around 2,1 children per woman.
The index is the lowest in the entire EU, along with Spain. Italy has already seen consecutive years of population reduction and is looking for ways to encourage couples to have more children. The emptying is not greater due to the presence of immigrants, who totaled 5,1 million on January 1, 2018 (8,5% of the total population), an increase of 1,9% compared to the previous year.
Still, 12 EU countries have proportionally more foreigners than Italy, including Germany (11,2%), Spain (9,5%) and the United Kingdom (9,2%)
By Ansa Agency
