Il paese senza figli

The structure of the Italian population, demographers say, is becoming profoundly unbalanced, as never before in our history: on one side the collapse of births, on the other the dizzying increase in the elderly. In the middle, the drastic reduction of that age group that produces income. The data are eloquent: each couple, today, generates on average little more than one child: at this rate each generation is almost halved and the young people in Italy will be reduced to a flicker. Meanwhile, the elderly have doubled, in the last 50 years, and the over-eighties have quadrupled. This completely new situation will have repercussions in every field: pensions, healthcare, assistance, and of course immigration. UN projections predict that in 2050 (when today's newborns will be 42 years old) there will be 10 million immigrants in Italy.