ITALY NEWS

Oldies but goodies

Italian demographic trends point to ageing population
(issue no. 30/2006 / April 6, 2006)

Recent statistics have shown that Italy is experiencing an increase in average life expectancy as well as a continuously lagging birth rate, factors that are likely to bring big changes to the country’s population demographics in the coming years.  According to a study released by the Italian Statistics and Data Research Centre (ISTAT), one in four Italians will be over the age of 65 by the year 2050. It is also predicted that people over the age of 85 will increase from one in fifty to one in twenty.  In addition to this, there has been a steady decrease in the population of young people and it is predicted that by 2030 the percentage of people under 14 will drop from its current 14.2 percent to 12.2 percent. ISTAT estimates that the overall population will go from 58.6 million people down to 55.8 million people in 2050. To help bolster the shrinking population is a steady influx in immigration, which has been rising substantially in Italy in recent years. From 1993-2003, 2,170,000 people were granted authorised residency in Italy. It is predicted that the nation will continue to receive approximately 150,000 new immigrants each year, adding to the changes of the overall population.

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