The updated demographic projections for the country through 2021 confirm the existence of a potential crisis framework. The resident population is declining, falling from 59.2 million on 1 January 2021 to 57.9 million in 2030, 54.2 million in 2050, and 47.7 million in 2070. Istat notes this in its report titled "Projections of the resident population and families." The ratio of individuals of working age (15-64 years) to those of non-working age (0-14 and 65 and older) will increase from approximately three to two in 2021 to approximately one to one in 2050. In ten years, the population is projected to decrease in four out of five municipalities, and in nine out of ten municipalities in rural areas. Families are expanding, but the average number of members is decreasing. Fewer couples with children, more couples without: by 2041 one in four families will be made up of a couple with children, more than one in five will not. The percentage of people aged 65 and older will increase to 34.9% in 2050 (from 23.5% in 2021), deaths will outnumber births by 788 thousand to 390 thousand in 2049, and 10.2 million people will be living alone in 2041. (from 8.5 million in 2021).