In the past years, the share of people aged over 65 years grew constantly in Italy. Estimates for 2024 report that 24.3 percent of the Italian inhabitants are aged 65 years and older. Moreover, 63.5 percent of the residents are predicted to be aged between 15 and 64 years and only 12.2 percent to be 14 years old and younger. In 2023, the Italian region with the highest proportion of kids up to 14 years old was Trentino-South Tyrol, with 14.4 percent. On the other hand, 28.9 percent of the people in Liguria were over 65 years, making it the region with the highest share of elderly among its residents. Causes of an aging population The growing proportion of old people in Italy is due to two main factors. First, the birth rate in the country decreased over the past years. In 2023, less than seven children were born per 1,000 inhabitants, two fewer infants than in 2002. Second, life expectancy increased over the same period. A 65-year-old Italian woman could expect to have almost 21 more years of life ahead in 2002, while by 2023 this number reached 22.4. The increase for men was even greater, with male life expectancy at 65 growing from around 17 years in 2002 to 19.5 years in 2023. Future demographic trends The aging trend in the Italian population is not expected to change in the upcoming years. Projections made in 2022 predicted that the country's population is going to sensibly decrease in numbers. Population forecasts for 2050 account for slightly more than 52 million citizens, around seven million fewer compared to 2020.

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the data for the Italy, New York population pyramid, which represents the Italy town population distribution across age and gender, using estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates. It lists the male and female population for each age group, along with the total population for those age groups. Higher numbers at the bottom of the table suggest population growth, whereas higher numbers at the top indicate declining birth rates. Furthermore, the dataset can be utilized to understand the youth dependency ratio, old-age dependency ratio, total dependency ratio, and potential support ratio.

Key observations

• Youth dependency ratio, which is the number of children aged 0-14 per 100 persons aged 15-64, for Italy, New York, is 17.6.
• Old-age dependency ratio, which is the number of persons aged 65 or over per 100 persons aged 15-64, for Italy, New York, is 46.2.
• Total dependency ratio for Italy, New York is 63.8.
• Potential support ratio, which is the number of youth (working age population) per elderly, for Italy, New York is 2.2.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates.

Age groups:

• Under 5 years
• 5 to 9 years
• 10 to 14 years
• 15 to 19 years
• 20 to 24 years
• 25 to 29 years
• 30 to 34 years
• 35 to 39 years
• 40 to 44 years
• 45 to 49 years
• 50 to 54 years
• 55 to 59 years
• 60 to 64 years
• 65 to 69 years
• 70 to 74 years
• 75 to 79 years
• 80 to 84 years
• 85 years and over

Variables / Data Columns

• Age Group: This column displays the age group for the Italy town population analysis. Total expected values are 18 and are define above in the age groups section.
• Population (Male): The male population in the Italy town for the selected age group is shown in the following column.
• Population (Female): The female population in the Italy town for the selected age group is shown in the following column.
• Total Population: The total population of the Italy town for the selected age group is shown in the following column.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Recommended for further research

This dataset is a part of the main dataset for Italy town Population by Age. You can refer the same here

Projections published in 2022 estimated that the population in Italy will decrease in the following years. In January 2024, the Italian population added up to 59 million people, but in 2030 Italians will be 57.5 million individuals. Twenty years later, the population will be around 52.3 million people. Low birth rate and old population The birth rate in Italy has constantly dropped in the last years. In 2023, 6.4 children were born per 1,000 inhabitants, three babies less than in 2002. Nationwide, the highest number of births was registered in the southern regions, whereas central Italy had the lowest number of children born every 1,000 people. More specifically, the birth rate in the south stood at 7 infants, while in the center it was equal to 5.9 births. Consequently, the population in Italy has aged over the last decade. Between 2002 and 2024, the age distribution of the Italian population showed a growing share of people aged 65 years and older. As a result, the share of young people decreased. The European exception Similarly, the population in Europe is estimated to decrease in the coming years. In 2024, there were 740 million people living in Europe. In 2100, the figure is expected to drop to 586 million inhabitants. However, projections of the world population suggest that Europe might be the only continent experiencing a population decrease. For instance, the population in Africa could grow from 1.41 billion people in 2022 to 3.92 billion individuals in 2100, the fastest population growth worldwide.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the area of modern-day Italy, at the time a collection of various states and kingdoms, was estimated to have a population of nineteen million, a figure which would grow steadily throughout the century, and by the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the population would rise to just over 26 million.

Italy’s population would see its first major disruption during the First World War, as Italy would join the Allied Forces in their fight against Austria-Hungary and Germany. In the First World War, Italy’s population would largely stagnate at 36 million, only climbing again following the end of the war in 1920. While Italy would also play a prominent role in the Second World War, as the National Fascist Party-led country would fight alongside Germany against the Allies, Italian fatalities from the war would not represent a significant percentage of Italy’s population compared to other European countries in the conflict. As a result, Italy would exit the Second World War with a population of just over 45 million.

From this point onwards the Italian economy started to recover from the war, and eventually boomed, leading to increased employment and standards of living, which facilitated steady population growth until the mid-1980s, when falling fertility and birth rates would cause growth to largely cease. From this point onward, the Italian population would remain at just over 57 million, until the 2000s when it began growing again due to an influx of migrants, peaking in 2017 at just over 60 million people. In the late 2010s, however, the Italian population began declining again, as immigration slowed and the economy weakened. As a result, in 2020, Italy is estimated to have fallen to a population of 59 million.

In 2024, Italy’s resident population is estimated to be almost 59 million inhabitants. About one-sixth of them lived in Lombardy, the most populous region in the country. Lazio and Campania followed, with roughly 5.7 million and 5.6 million inhabitants, respectively. These figures are mainly driven by Rome and Naples, the administrative capitals of these regions, and two of the largest metropolitan areas in the country. Which region has the oldest population?  The population in Italy has become older and older over the last years. The average age in the country is equal to 46.6 years, but in some regions this figure is even higher. Liguria records an average age of 49.5 years and has one of the lowest birth rates in the country. Demographic trends for the future Liguria’s case, however, is not an outlier. Italy is already the country with the highest share of old people in Europe. At the same time, the very low number of new births means that, despite an always-increasing life expectancy, the Italian population is declining. Indeed, projections estimate that the country will have five million fewer inhabitants by 2050.

The statistic depicts the median age in Italy from 1950 to 2100. The median age of a population is an index that divides the population into two equal groups: half of the population is older than the median age and the other half younger. In 2020, the median age of Italy's population was 46.4 years.

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the Italy town population by age. The dataset can be utilized to understand the age distribution and demographics of Italy town.

Content

The dataset constitues the following three datasets

• Italy, New York Age Group Population Dataset: A complete breakdown of Italy town age demographics from 0 to 85 years, distributed across 18 age groups
• Italy, New York Age Cohorts Dataset: Children, Working Adults, and Seniors in Italy town - Population and Percentage Analysis
• Italy, New York Population Pyramid Dataset: Age Groups, Male and Female Population, and Total Population for Demographics Analysis

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

This statistic depicts the age distribution of Italy from 2013 to 2023. In 2023, about 12.14 percent of the population in Italy fell into the 0-14 year category, 63.64 percent into the 15-64 age group and 24.22 percent were over 65 years of age.

In the first fifteen years of the twenty-first century, the age structure of the Italian population has changed. The proportion of people over 45 years of age increased, whereas the share of younger generations dropped. As a matter of fact, the average age of the population in 2018 was 45.2 years, about two years higher than in 2011. Italians are getting older and the tendency is predicted to continue in the following years.

Less births every year

One of the factors influencing changes in the age group distribution is the decrease in the number of births. In 2017, 458 thousand babies were born in Italy, which was roughly 106 thousand less in comparison with the number of infants born a decade earlier.

Italian population one of the oldest in the world

With 23 percent of the population older than 65 years, Italy placed third in the worldwide ranking of countries with the largest share of elderly citizens. The only two countries ahead were Japan and Monaco, where the proportion of individuals older than 65 years reached 28 and 26 percent, respectively.

In 2024, Liguria was the region with the largest share of the population aged 65 years or older. By contrast, 20.9 percent of inhabitants in Campania belonged to this age group, the lowest percentage nationwide. Data showing the age distribution by macro-region reveal that the north-west of Italy had the oldest population, while people living in the southern regions were the youngest nationwide.

This graph shows the forecasts of population increases in Italy from 2016 to 2050, by age. According to the figure, the population will increase by just around two millions of individuals (from 61.8 in 2016 to 63.54 in 2050), while the number of individuals aged 65 and over will grow of about 7.5 million in total.

In 2022, 847,398 people lived in Turin, of which 63 percent aged 40 years old or more. In fact, the most numerous age range was the one between 40 and 64 years old, grouping more than 35 percent of the inhabitants, with an equal distribution between men and women. On the contrary, under-20 citizens represented 12 percent of the total population and only one third of the residents aged from 40 to 64. Females were more represented in the over-40 age groups, whereas males prevailed in those under-40.

Prior to 1829, the area of modern day Greece was largely under the control of the Ottoman Empire. In 1821, the Greeks declared their independence from the Ottomans, and achieved it within 8 years through the Greek War of Independence. The Independent Kingdom of Greece was established in 1829 and made up the southern half of present-day, mainland Greece, along with some Mediterranean islands. Over the next century, Greece's borders would expand and readjust drastically, through a number of conflicts and diplomatic agreements; therefore the population of Greece within those political borders** was much lower than the population in what would be today's borders. As there were large communities of ethnic Greeks living in neighboring countries during this time, particularly in Turkey, and the data presented here does not show the full extent of the First World War, Spanish Flu Pandemic and Greko-Turkish War on these Greek populations. While it is difficult to separate the fatalities from each of these events, it is estimated that between 500,000 and 900,000 ethnic Greeks died at the hands of the Ottomans between the years 1914 and 1923, and approximately 150,000 died due to the 1918 flu pandemic. These years also saw the exchange of up to one million Orthodox Christians from Turkey to Greece, and several hundred thousand Muslims from Greece to Turkey; this exchange is one reason why Greece's total population did not change drastically, despite the genocide, displacement and demographic upheaval of the 1910s and 1920s. Greece in WWII A new Hellenic Republic was established in 1924, which saw a decade of peace and modernization in Greece, however this was short lived. The Greek monarchy was reintroduced in 1935, and the prime minister, Ioannis Metaxas, headed a totalitarian government that remained in place until the Second World War. Metaxas tried to maintain Greek neutrality as the war began, however Italy's invasion of the Balkans made this impossible, and the Italian army tried invading Greece via Albania in 1940. The outnumbered and lesser-equipped Greek forces were able to hold off the Italian invasion and then push them backwards into Albania, marking the first Allied victory in the war. Following a series of Italian failures, Greece was eventually overrun when Hitler launched a German and Bulgarian invasion in April 1941, taking Athens within three weeks. Germany's involvement in Greece meant that Hitler's planned invasion of the Soviet Union was delayed, and Hitler cited this as the reason for it's failure (although most historians disagree with this). Over the course of the war approximately eight to eleven percent of the Greek population died due to fighting, extermination, starvation and disease; including over eighty percent of Greece's Jewish population in the Holocaust. Following the liberation of Greece in 1944, the country was then plunged into a civil war (the first major conflict of the Cold War), which lasted until 1949, and saw the British and American-supported government fight with Greek communists for control of the country. The government eventually defeated the Soviet-supported communist forces, and established American influence in the Aegean and Balkans throughout the Cold War. Post-war Greece From the 1950s until the 1970s, the Marshall Plan, industrialization and an emerging Tourism sector helped the Greek economy to boom, with one of the strongest growth rates in the world. Apart from the military coup, which ruled from 1967 to 1974, Greece remained relatively peaceful, prosperous and stable throughout the second half of the twentieth century. The population reached 11.2 million in the early 2000s, before going into decline for the past fifteen years. This decline came about due to a negative net migration rate and slowing birth rate, ultimately facilitated by the global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008; many Greeks left the country in search of work elsewhere, and the economic troubles have impacted the financial incentives that were previously available for families with many children. While the financial crisis was a global event, Greece was arguably the hardest-hit nation during the crisis, and suffered the longest recession of any advanced economy. The financial crisis has had a consequential impact on the Greek population, which has dropped by 800,000 in 15 years, and the average age has increased significantly, as thousands of young people migrate in search of employment.