There will be almost eight million
fewer Italians of working age in 2050 than there are today,
social and economic think tank CENSIS said in its 57th annual
report on Italy Friday.
This scarcity of workers will have an inevitable impact on the
productive system and Italy's ability to generate value.
Welfare spending is also a worry, set to rise from 131 billion
euros today to 177 billion in 2050, the survey said.
In other findings, the survey said 74% of Italian are now in
favour of euthanasia, and 87% of those in employment no longer
felt work was central to their lives.
The report also said that some 36,000 Italian young people had
left Italy for other countries in the last year alone,
continuing an endemic brain drain.
In 2050, it added, Italy will have lost some 4.5 million
residents, as if its two biggest cities, Rome and Milan, had
disappeared.
This demographic decline will be the result of a 9.5 million
fall in the number of under 65s and a 4.6 million rise in the
number of over 65.
The report said that "the broadly predictable effects of certain
economic and social processes seem to have been removed from the
country's collective agenda, or in any case they are
underestimated".
photo: President Sergio Matterall receives the presidet of the
CENSIS foundation, sociologist Giuseppe De Rita
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