If in Italy in 1951 there were 31 elderly people for every 100 young people, today the latter have become 200. And at this rate they will exceed the 300 in 2050. It is well known that in our country the demographic scenario is progressively sliding towards the abyss, however in recent days the report «Being there – More young people, more future», published in view of the fourth edition of the General States of Natality, which will take place at the Auditorium della Conciliazione in Rome on 9 and 10 May. Among the most worrying findings that emerged from the analysis, carried out by the Natality Foundation in collaboration with Istat, is that relating to women of childbearing age (i.e. aged between 15 and 49): in 2011 they were close to 14 million, now they are around 11.5 million.
It is not a country for young people
However, the reduction in the number of potential parents is not due to exclusively numerical reasons. In fact, the document also highlighted the existence of one inversely proportional correlation between age and risk of povertyas this threat concerns one in five people over 55, one in four between 25 and 54 and even one in three between 16 and 24. This is primarily due to the evolution of the labor market, which compared to 2004 has seen the employment rate of 50-64 year olds increased by 21% while that of 15-34 year olds decreased by 7.3%. All elements which in reality are not surprising if we consider that, as we read, «Italian public spending on young people does not reach the levels of other countries, both on the total and in terms of GDP. For example, a lower percentage of resources is used for education than in the major European economies: 4.1% of GDP in Italy compared to 5.2% in France, 4.6% in Spain, 4.5% in Germany and 4.8% of the average of the EU27 countries”.
«A question of freedom»
«The problem of the birth rate in Italy is neither an economic nor a cultural question, but of freedom – the president of the Birth Foundation Gigi De Palo declared to press agencies –: couples who would like to have a child or have another are not free, in Italy the birth of a child is the second leading factor in poverty; women still forced to choose between motherhood and career are not free; young people are not free, with their employment rate firmly in last place among the countries of the European Union, precarious in work and in life”. How to try to solve the problem? «We need a serious, lasting and structural plan, with an objective – De Palo himself wrote in the report –. The French and Germans have already done it with sustainable and measurable results. This is no longer the time for analyses, we know those, but for synthesis, and we also have to hurry. The future of our country is at stake.”
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