Italy: Aging population a growing problem as the piazzas fall silent

Giles Gibson

Rome: Life moves at a slow pace in Calcata, a historic town perched on a cliff about an hour’s drive from Rome. It is one of countless towns in Italy that young people and families have left, looking for work in the big cities.

Other than some birds and a few cats, Alessandro Falconi was one of the few residents to be found in the piazza on the weekday morning that CGTN Europe visited, doing some renovation work on an old house.

He first moved to Calcata in the early 1970s as a child, lived in Rome for a while and then came back.

“When I came to live here again in 1994, there were still many families, whereas now there are fewer. And the number of old people has gone up as well as people living on their own,” said Falconi as he put together some new drains for his house.

He says his two adult daughters have both moved to the capital to find work.

Down a maze of small alleys is La Sala tea shop, run by another long-time resident Gemma Uyttendaele. She is originally from the Netherlands, and visited Calcata while traveling around Italy and eventually settled there.

She says groups of children used to play in the piazza years ago but now, there are very few young people in Calcata.

“The current economic situation prevents people from having two or three children. In the old days, people were doing much better financially,” Uyttendaele told us in an interview on her terrace looking out over the wooded hills that surround the town.

The shift in demographics that is clear to see walking around Calcata, is also playing out across the entire country. At 23 percent, Italy has the highest share of citizens aged 65 or over in the entire European Union.

Aging populations cause an economic imbalance, with more older people claiming pensions and other state benefits, with not enough younger people to pay taxes to fund those benefits.

In an attempt to tackle the situation, the Italian government has appointed a minister for families, the birthrate and equal opportunities.

However, according to Italy’s National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), the situation is only set to get worse.

“The imbalance can be measured by comparing the number of people over 65 and the younger population. Between now and 2050, we expect that this number will grow to 297 people over 65 per 100 young people under 15,” said Sabrina Prati, Director General at ISTAT.

For towns like Calcata that have seen their populations steadily age over the years, it could take generations for the piazza to be filled with groups of playing children once again.