Deaths outstrip births in southern Italy in 2013

(ANSA) - Rome, October 28 - The number of deaths exceeded births in southern Italy in 2013, raising the spectre of a "demographic upheaval" with "unforeseeable consequences", the Association for the Industrial Development of Southern Italy (SVIMEZ) said in a report published Tuesday.
    Deaths had outstripped births in the region on only two previous occasions, after the third Italian War of Independence in 1867 and after the First World War in 1918, SVIMEZ said. In absolute terms 177,000 babies were born in southern Italy in 2013, the lowest number since the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. According to SVIMEZ estimates, southern Italy is set to lose 4.2 million inhabitants over the next 50 years.