Campania Faces a Demographic Winter: A Decline in Population and Birth Rates

Campania has lost 23.1% of its population between 2008 and 2019, a trend that is intensifying as the demographic decline between 2022 and 2023 was 3.6% in just one year. This is one of the data points highlighted in Naples by Gian Carlo Blangiardo, emeritus professor at the University of Milano Bicocca and former president of Istat, in his report 'Italy and Campania in the grip of the demographic winter', presented at the meeting 'Together for birth rates... regional commitment' of the Forum of Family Associations of Campania. The current population of Campania is decreasing both due to the emigration of young people and the collapse of birth rates. In 2002, the province of Naples led the national ranking with 12.4 births per 1000 inhabitants, and Campania, with 11.4 births per 1000 citizens, was at the top among the regions. Twenty years later, in 2022, Naples drops to third place and the primacy of Campania is ceded to Trentino Alto Adige. Among the factors determining the decline, the problem for women to reconcile motherhood and work. 'The difficult relationship with the employer - explained the national president of the Forum of Families, Adriano Bordignon - is one of the huge challenges in our country. In all developed countries, significant female employment is also correlated with higher birth rates. Instead, the Italian situation reduces the opportunity for women to have new births. Projections for Campania foresee a continuation of the trend: in the twenty years 2023-2042, the resident population will decrease by 11.3%, with a reduction of another 17.7% in the following twenty years from 2043 onwards. Overall, between January 1, 2023, and the same date in 2064, the Campanian population would reduce by a total of 27%, thus 1.5 million fewer residents. The projections lead to various scenarios for the future. The potential workforce will halve, as will the contingent of young people. The flow of access to compulsory schooling at 6 years and to the active electorate of 18-year-olds will decrease over time. On the contrary, the quotient of citizens over 90 years old should triple. With all the economic and social problems that are easy to guess. 'A regional law in favor of families is being defined. I believe that this is also one of the characterizing elements of this line of the Region aimed at solidarity and accompanying the processes of parenthood,' said the president of the Campania Region, Vincenzo De Luca, on the sidelines of the event at the Chamber of Commerce. 'Campania tries to address the issues of denatality, to encourage families also with measures that indirectly help families such as free transport for students up to 26 years and the bonus for sports practice for children up to 15 years,' De Luca added, also denouncing that 'the South has lost almost 800,000 young people in this decade. The incredible thing is that the PNRR funds, over 200 billion euros, were given to Italy to counter these trends, that is to recover the different infrastructure, employment between the North and the South, and gender, that is the abnormally high level of female unemployment we have in the southern area. Obviously, these objectives have now disappeared: we talk about the PNRR as if they were resources without a goal,' concluded De Luca.