Old, without young people, scared and inert like sleepwalkers: they are the Italian of today and the future according to the 2023 Report of the Census. An important opportunity to grasp the contours of the social situation we are facing. “The country of a thousand wonders, if admired from the top of the luxurious city terraces, the overhangs over the sea, the hills and the highest peaks. Ignoring how entangled it is in all its backwardness, if practiced from below.” The study defines Italians as a people of sleepwalkers, sunk in a sleep that makes them "blind to omens" and trapped within "emotional hypertophria" dominated by a paralyzing fear and "in a calm search for comforting pleasures".
The "thousand" fears of Italians
What does it mean? Nowadays for Italians everything is an emergency, but in the end nothing moves them, bent by a profound sense of resignation e impotence. 84% of Italians are scared of the crazy climate, 73,4% fear for the future of the country due to its structural problems, 73% are convinced that due to global upheavals, more and more migrants will arrive in Italy and we won't know how manage them. But again: 53% fear the financial collapse of the state, 59,9% that a world war will break out and 59,2% are convinced that we are unable to protect ourselves from terrorist attacks. Other anxieties are knocking on the door of Italians: 73,8% are afraid that in the years to come there will not be a sufficient number of workers to pay pensions and 69,2% think that not everyone will be able to get treatment, because public health does not will be able to guarantee adequate performance. Finally, and overall, 80,1% (84,1% among young people) are convinced that we live in a Country irreparably in decline, which is not worth betting on. But in the face of all this, the research institute notes: "Everything is an emergency: therefore, none of it really is."
The demographic collapse
At the center of the study is Italian demographic collapse. In 2050, Italy will have lost a total of 4,5 million residents, or the sum of two cities like Rome and Milan. 3,7 million people under 35 will disappear and, at the same time, the number of people over 4,6 will increase by 65 million, of which 1,6 million are over 85. A cycle that will no longer be impossible to reverse, because the mothers of the future young people of the future should bring them into the world now, while women of childbearing age have fallen to 11,6 million and by 2050 they will have fallen below 10 million. In 2040, couples with children will decrease to just one in four.
The slowdown in growth
In 2050 we will increasingly be "a country for old people". This will have serious impacts on our economy, on productive system. Which already today certifies a new phase of uncertainty, with the negative sign in front of the change in GDP in the second half of the year (-0,4%), the stagnation of the economy recorded in the third quarter and the reduction of 1,7 % of gross fixed investments. Furthermore, it still does not incorporate the effects of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Another positive note, more or less, is theoccupation. We hit a record between 2021 and 2022: 2,4% more. And the recovery continues this year too: in the first half of 2023 the highest number of employed people ever was recorded, over 23.449.000 (+2%). The highest figure ever. Yet, the production system complains about the shortage of manpower need qualified professional figures. Despite this, Italy remains at the bottom of the EU: our unemployment rate is 60,1%, while the EU average is 69,8%.
The long wave of civil rights demands
Even tourism, exports and the hospitality industry no longer provide satisfaction. However, there is a sector of Italy that is surprisingly awake: that of civil rights. What emerges from the study is a large gap between public opinion and politics: 74% of Italians are in favor of euthanasia, 70,3% say yes to adoption for singles and 54,3% for homosexual couples. 65,6% are in favor of equal marriage between people of the same sex and 72,5% are in favor of ius soli. Only pregnancy for others is approved by a minority below 50%: 34,4%.
The flight abroad continues
We are and remain one country of emigrants. Censis notes that almost 6 million Italians now live abroad, equal to more than 10% of the global population. And these numbers are higher than those of immigration: there are in fact 5 million foreigners residing in Italy, equal to 8,6% of the population. Italians who have settled abroad have increased by 36,7% in the last decade, or almost 1,6 million more. The most expatriates are young people between 18 and 34 years old, 36.125 in the last year.
