Is Italy becoming too old a country? According to the National Statistics Institute (Istat), it has lost more than half a million inhabitants in five years with the drop in births and the increase in departures abroad, not offset by the arrivals of immigrants .
“As of December 31, 2019, the resident population in Italy is 60,244,639 people, almost 189,000 less than at the beginning of the year. Compared to the same date in 2014, it decreased by 551,000 people, confirming the persistence of the demographic decline that has characterized these last five years, ”writes Istat.
Decline in number of foreign immigrant residents
"New negative birth record," says Istat, after that of 2018: barely 420,170 births, around 19,000 fewer over a year. "The negative natural population dynamic continues and once again registers a significant deficit in the" natural substitution "between newborns and deaths, in line with the negative trend for several years", adds Istat, with the deaths exceeding 214,000 new births in 2019.
The Italian population is "characterized by an accentuated demographic aging" recalls Istat and the arrivals of foreigners who are "slowing down" can only "attenuate" the overall decline in the population. Italy welcomes citizens of 194 different nationalities to its territory, including fifty with at least 10,000 residents in the peninsula.
The top five nationalities in terms of residents, Romanians (1.208 million), Albanians (441,000), Moroccans (432,000), Chinese (305,000) and Ukrainians (240,000) alone represent almost half of the foreigners present in Italy, underlines Istat.
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