New ISTAT forecasts on Italy's demographic future see the population decreasing: from 59 million on January 1, 2022 to 58.1 million in 2030, to 54.4 million in 2050 to 45.8 million in 2080. Households are growing but with smaller and smaller average number of members. Fewer couples with children, more couples without: by 2042 only one in four households will be composed of a couple with children, more than one in five will have none. The ratio of working-age individuals (15-64) to non-working-age individuals (0-14 and 65 and older) will fall from about three to two in 2022 to about one to one in 2050. Even within a common picture of aging, structural differences between the North and the South of the country are amplified. Among future demographic transformations, ISTAT highlights the marked aging process in the South. The impact on social protection policies will be important, having to cope with needs for an increasing share of the elderly.
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