Report: Italy's Population Shrinks       

The population of Italy has recorded a steady decline recently, while their average age continues to spike significantly. The dramatic changes coincide with the increase in the number of immigrants to Italy.

But the number of immigrants is not sufficient to fill the shortfall caused by the population decline, according to the National Institute of Statistics, today, Wednesday.

At the end of 2019, Italy had nearly 60 million people, a decrease of 175,000 people from the end of 2018 (-0.3%), and an increase by only 207,000  compared to 2011, the date of the last large-scale census showed, according to the institute.

The institute pointed out that "the slight increase in the population compared to 2011 is linked exclusively to foreigners," whose number for the first time exceeded 5 million people.

Over the years between 2011 and 2019, the number of Italians shrank by about 800 thousand people (-1.5%), while the number of foreigners in the country increased by one million people (+ 25.1%), in addition to more than a million foreigners who obtained Italian citizenship.

The number of women at the end of last year was 30 million, 591 thousand women, or 51.3% of the total population.

Among the main observations in this new survey is an increasing in population ageing, as the average life expectancy in the country increased while people over the age of 45 now represent 53.5% of the population, compared to 48.2% in 2011.

Half of all foreigners come from Europe (including one-third from the European Union), followed by those from Africa and Asia (just over 20% for each of the two continents).

Romanians form the largest foreign community in Italy with more than 1.1 million people, followed by immigrants from Albania, Morocco, China, and Ukraine.

The National Institute of Statistics published, at the end of November, a document showing that the Covid-19 crisis has strengthened major population trends in Italy.

While the country recorded the lowest number of births in 150 years in 2019, with 420,000 births, the number may drop to 408,000 in 2020 and 393,000 in 2021, according to the institute's forecast.