In Sicily, from 2019 to 2023, the population decreased by 1.93%. The numbers highlight a negative trend of over 94 thousand inhabitants. The only provinces going against the trend are Catania, where depopulation is 0.26% (-2,836 inhabitants) and Ragusa, where the population increases by 0.71% (+2,229). The data emerged during the conference organized by Anci Sicilia which is taking place today in San Marco D’Alunzio, in the province of Messina.
The numbers
The black spot of the demographic crisis belongs to the territory of Enna, (-4.58%, -7,431 inhabitants). Followed by Caltanissetta (-3.91%, -10,155), Agrigento (-3.46%, -14,826), Messina (-3%, -18,533), Palermo (-2.23%, -27,413), Trapani (- 2.13, -9,033), Syracuse (-1.67%, -6,530). Among the provincial capitals, Trapani suffers the most from depopulation, with -15.80%, -10,473. Followed by Enna which marks a loss of 4.46%, -1,193 inhabitants, Agrigento (-4.36%, -2,538), Messina (-4.31, -9,823), Caltanissetta (-3.90, -2,391), Palermo (-3.10%, 20,221), Syracuse (-2.57%, -3,075): in contrast, Catania is growing, where the population grows by 0.66% (+1,978) and Ragusa with +2.95% (+2,102 inhabitants).
The causes
«Unfortunately – says the general secretary of Anci Sicily, Mario Emanuele Alvano – depopulation does not only concern inland or mountain areas. It is not a limited issue. In all the provinces the data specifies that, except in Ragusa and Catania, in the last 5 years the population of the island has suffered a worrying decrease. I believe that the problem has only entered the political agenda at a superficial level without a real desire to resolve it. What Sicily will be like in the coming years is a topic that must be addressed every day. Based on the census closed on 31 December 2022, the Sicilian population amounts to 4,814,016 residents. A figure down by 0.4% compared to the previous year. Added to this is the financial crisis which has been affecting the municipalities for years and which Anci Sicilia continues to denounce: at present we have 70 municipalities in difficulty, 43 municipalities in a rebalancing plan. In a phase in which the world is looking for air quality, good food and a more natural dimension for daily life, our enormous heritage risks not being adequately valorised”.
The solutions
«It is absolutely necessary – added Paolo Amenta, president of Anci Sicily, – that there is greater awareness on the part of the institutions involved also with respect to the choices that are being made regarding healthcare throughout the regional territory. The reorganization of the hospital network, in fact, cannot help but take into account the choices regarding Territorial Operations Centers and community hospitals with an approach that sees real integration between the social and healthcare sectors”. “We need to have a strategic, 360-degree vision of the real needs of our island and, beyond the administrative borders, we need to build the conditions to return to living even in small towns, to transform them into places to live in which to do everything,” he said. observed
«The country has the possibility to grow and restart using the potential of the so-called internal areas. All the necessary interventions, if implemented in a system, will be able to give a concrete economic return as well as giving new protagonism and valorisation to local resources”, said Lino Gentile, Anci national delegate for Internal Areas, who added: “These territories must not be considered as a weight for the state budget but what is needed, rather, is a policy that must transform from experimental to ordinary”.
The interventions of the Region
«By June, after the European elections, the notice ‘Fund for the mountains of the Sicilian Region will be published which will serve to finance with twenty million initiatives against the depopulation of the small municipalities of the Sicilian mountain areas». This was said by the regional councilor for social autonomy Andrea Messina, who spoke today in San Marco D’Alunzio, in the province of Messina, at the conference organized by Anci Sicilia on the demographic and economic crisis of small municipalities. The funding comes from Fosmit, the fund for the development of Italian mountains. «The objective of the measure, which will also be proposed again in the coming years – says the councilor -, is to avoid, or at least contain, depopulation in small mountain municipalities. There will be three lines of financing that aim to improve infrastructure: water dispersion, energy efficiency and purchase of goods to strengthen community services, from roads to environmental protection”.
: ANCI data and the Catania case){kind=link}