In just one year, Sardinia loses 8,314 inhabitants : as if, in a period of 12 months, a town like Dorgali would completely disappear.
The demographic situation of the island remains worrying, which in Italy is in last place for fertility rate , with 0.91 children per woman against a national average of 1.20, and is the second region, after Basilicata, for reduction of the population in the last 12 months.
The data were provided by the 2024 regional migration observatory which released the Mete report, created by Crei-Acli on ISTAT data and presented in Cagliari.
From 2016 to 2024, Sardinia lost over 88,000 inhabitants. The natural balance in 2023 continues to be negative: deaths (18,563) were more than double the births (7,231) , leading to a negative natural balance of -11,332. And the internal migration balance also remains negative : around -598, indicating that more people are moving out of the region than those settling there.
Good news instead on the front of the migration balance with foreign countries (+3,616 people), with Sardinia once again becoming a destination for foreigners . As of January 1, 2024, 52,878 foreigners resided on the island, equal to 3.4% of the total population of the region. The main foreign communities come from Romania, Senegal, Morocco, China and Ukraine, which recorded a +16%, while the Senegalese and Moroccan communities recorded a slight decrease. A growing figure is also that of the German community which records a +5% in the last 12 months.
Although the data on residences cannot take the size of the phenomenon into consideration, the Argentine community continues to grow, its size having increased eightfold from 2016 to today.
In the Mete 2024 report, an in-depth focus was dedicated to the qualitative consequences of depopulation and in particular to the change in the consistency of the different age groups: Sardinia has the lowest percentage of young people (0-14 years) in Italy , with only 10.1% of the population in this age group. This situation does not change even when focusing on the foreign population resident in Sardinia which has only 12% of young people. This situation will worsen in the coming decades.
According to Istat forecasts, Sardinia will lose 21% of its population by 2050 and the population under 15 will decrease by 32%, the active population (15-64 years) by 38%. University migration is also on this index: over 16% of young Sardinians choose universities outside the region, mainly in Lombardy, Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna.
(Unioneonline/ss)