In less than twenty years the number of people of working age in the “Granda” will drop from the current 63% of the population to 56%. This means that only a little more than half of those who populate the Cuneo area, for age reasons, i.e. from 14 to 65 years old, will be able to work. This data would be enough to generate concerns about how the territory can still be considered, in the short term, the “engine” of the Piedmont economy, even if other areas are certainly not better off, even at a European level. The data on demographic trends in the province are provided by the research office of Chamber of Commerce processed by Istat and Infocamere and were told in the hall of honor of the Cuneo Chamber of Commerce by professor Francesco Billari, Rector of Bocconi University, one of the leading experts in the subject, alongside the director Gianni Aime, with the intervention of the president Luca Crosetto. And it is clear why we talk about a “demographic winter”.
There will be no need to wait 17 years (the data for 56% of the working population are expected in 2041) because the alarm is already there today. Just look at the trends: in the Cuneo area at the end of 2023, 3,946 children were born and the number of deaths far exceeds the births, reaching 6,931 units. In 2022: 7,920 births and 14,524 deaths. In 2008, 5,554 children were born, 40% more than today. The average age of the Cuneo population is today 46.6 years (regionally it is 47.9). In 2041 it will be equal to 49 years and there will be 276 elderly people for every 100 under 15s (ISTAT data). As of 1 January 2023, the resident population in the province of Cuneo was 579,948 inhabitants (-207 units less than the previous year, according to the report of the Cuneo Chamber of Commerce). One year later, the population of Granda is 582,194 people, a slight increase (+0.3%) compared to 2023: it is the second consecutive year of growth, but the trend remains negative. The future? In 17 years it will drop by 6,400 units and over 32% of the population will be over 65.
What economic and social impact will there be? The first, obvious: provincial youth businesses have fallen of 1,824 units from 2011 to today (from 7,812 to 5,988) with a constant physiological decline until 2023.
FOREIGNERS
On the other hand, the demographic structure of the province of Cuneo has seen an ever-increasing number of foreigners over time, which at the end of 2023 reached 62,778, equal to 10.8% of the total resident population. In recent years it has been immigrants who have alleviated the demographic winter, but it is worth remembering that migratory flows depend on endogenous factors and political decisions. Immigration has favored the growth of foreign entrepreneurship: in the same period, in fact, foreign businesses recorded an increase of around 1,000 units in the province of Cuneo; in the last two years their percentage growth has been double-digit, higher than both the Piedmontese and national ones
