The statistic shows the demographic dynamics in the Italian region of Sardinia in 2016. According to the figure, the region faced a negative trend in 2016, with the resident population decreasing by around ************* units. The result is partially due to the natural balance (difference between births and deaths) that resulted in a deficit for almost *** thousand individuals. The immigration from abroad of around *** thousand individuals had been more than enough to save the balance of those migrating abroad (around *** thousands).

This statistic illustrates the share of population covered by broadband lines in the Italian region of Sardinia in 2018, broken down by speed. According to data, the share of population covered by broadband lines with speed included in the range from * Mbit/s to ** Mbit/s reached ***** percent.

In spite of the common belief of Europe as reasonably homogeneous at genetic level, advances in high-throughput genotyping technology have resolved several gradients which define different geographical areas with good precision. When Northern and Southern European groups were considered separately, there were clear genetic distinctions. Intra-country genetic differences were also evident, especially in Finland and, to a lesser extent, within other European populations. Here, we present the first analysis using the 125,799 genome-wide Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) data of 1,014 Italians with wide geographical coverage. We showed by using Principal Component analysis and model-based individual ancestry analysis, that the current population of Sardinia can be clearly differentiated genetically from mainland Italy and Sicily, and that a certain degree of genetic differentiation is detectable within the current Italian peninsula population. Pair-wise FST statistics Northern and Southern Italy amounts approximately to 0.001 between, and around 0.002 between Northern Italy and Utah residents with Northern and Western European ancestry (CEU). The Italian population also revealed a fine genetic substructure underscoring by the genomic inflation (Sardinia vs. Northern Italy = 3.040 and Northern Italy vs. CEU = 1.427), warning against confounding effects of hidden relatedness and population substructure in association studies.

In 2025, Liguria was the region with the largest share of the population aged 65 years or older. By contrast, 21 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.

The population of Italy is getting older every year, becoming one of the oldest ones in the world. In 2025, the average age of the Italian population was 46.8 years, 3.4 years more than the average age registered in 2010. However, the age differs significantly depending on the region. According to the most recent data for 2025, the “oldest” citizens of the Italian peninsula live in the region of Liguria, with an average age 49.6 years, whereas the youngest are in Campania, 44.5 years on average. Women live longer than men The difference in the average age of the population can be observed not only on a regional basis, but also between genders. In 2021, Italian women were on average roughly three years older than men. When it comes to the life expectancy, data confirm the longevity of Italian women. In fact, females in Italy are expected to live on average about four years longer than men. The Old Continent In 2024, Europe was the continent with the highest share of population older than 65 years. Whereas the worldwide percentage of the population over 65 years was of ten percent, the percentage of elderly people in the Old Continent reached 20 percent.

Comparison of 2005 population of two Italian regions (Liguria and Sardinia) weighted using the ASSET's weights.

In 2017, the province of Sassari was the one with the largest number of cars in operation in Sardinia, followed by the regional capital Cagliari. These two provinces had a car population of ******* and ******* vehicles, respectively.

Esox cisalpinus (Teleostea: Esocidae) (syn. Esox flaviae) is an Italian freshwater autochthonous fish, whose originary range is limited to the Northern and Central Italy. However, this species has historically been introduced in several areas of Southern Italy, mainly for recreational purposes. In this paper we report the first record of E. cisalpinus on the Sardinia island (Western Mediterranean, Italy), where the species has been recently introduced at least in one lake. The species identification and the population dynamics analysis were performed using mitochondrial markers. The level of genetic variability, compared to those of other peninsular populations of E. cisalpinus, was surprisingly high, and several never-before-described haplotypes were found. A total of 10 mtDNA haplotypes were found. Demographic analysis is suggestive of a population expansion. We hypothesise that E. cisalpinus has been introduced in the Sardinian lake by the releasing of a conspicuous number of individuals. Given the conservational and recreational interest that E. cisalpinus arouses, it would be advisable that Sardinian government focuses in the near future also on management measures of its Sardinian population.

We analysed more than 600 red deer (Cervus elaphus) from large parts of its European distribution range at 13 microsatellite loci, presenting the first continent-wide study of this species using nuclear markers. Populations were clearly differentiated (overall FST = 0.166, Jost’s Dest = 0.385), and the BAPS clustering algorithm yielded mainly geographically limited and adjacent genetic units. When forced into only three genetic clusters our data set produced a very similar geographic pattern as previously found in mtDNA phylogeographic studies: a western group from Iberia to central and parts of Eastern Europe, an eastern group from the Balkans to Eastern Europe and a third group including the threatened relict populations from Sardinia and Mesola in Italy. This result was also confirmed by a multivariate approach to analysing our data set, a discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC). Calculations of genetic diversity and effective population sizes (linkage-disequilibrium app...

The island of Sicily was the region with the highest marriage rate in 2023, with 3.7 marriages per 1,000 inhabitants. Located in the south as well, Campania followed with 3.6 marriages every 1,000 people. In Lombardy and Lazio, the two most populated regions, the rate was less than three celebrations per 1,000 residents, while Sardinia was the Italian territory where the fewest marriages were performed.

In 2023, Lombardy counted the largest number of births in Italy, with around 66,000 newborns. Campania and sicily followed, with about 43,000 and 35,500 births, respectively. On the contrary, Aosta Valley recorded the lowest number of children born in 2023.

Identification of susceptibility genes for essential hypertension in humans has been a challenge due to its multifactorial pathogenesis complicated by gene-gene and gene-environment interactions, developmental programing and sex specific differences. These concurrent features make identification of causal hypertension susceptibility genes with a single approach difficult, thus requiring multiple lines of evidence involving genetic, biochemical and biological experimentation to establish causal functional mutations. Here we report experimental evidence encompassing genetic, biochemical and in vivo modeling that altogether support ATP1A1 as a hypertension susceptibility gene in males in Sardinia, Italy. ATP1A1 encodes the α1Na,K-ATPase isoform, the sole sodium pump in vascular endothelial and renal tubular epithelial cells. DNA-sequencing detected a 12-nucleotide long thymidine (12T) insertion(ins)/deletion(del) polymorphism within a poly-T sequence (38T vs 26T) in the ATP1A1 5’-regulatory region associated with hypertension in a male Sardinian population. The 12T-insertion allele confers decreased susceptibility to hypertension (P = 0.035; OR = 0.50 [0.28–0.93]) accounting for 12.1 mmHg decrease in systolic BP (P = 0.02) and 6.6 mmHg in diastolic BP (P = 0.046). The ATP1A1 promoter containing the 12T-insertion exhibited decreased transcriptional activity in in vitro reporter-assay systems, indicating decreased α1Na,K-ATPase expression with the 12T-insertion, compared with the 12T-deletion ATP1A1 promoter. To test the effects of decreased α1Na,K-ATPase expression on blood pressure, we measured blood pressure by radiotelemetry in three month-old, highly inbred heterozygous knockout ATP1A1+/− male mice with resultant 58% reduction in ATP1A1 protein levels. Male ATP1A1+/− mice showed significantly lower blood pressure (P < 0.03) than age-matched male wild-type littermate controls. Concordantly, lower ATP1A1 expression is expected to lower Na-reabsorption in the kidney thereby decreasing sodium-associated risk for hypertension and sodium-induced endothelial stiffness and dysfunction. Altogether, data support ATP1A1 as a hypertension susceptibility gene in a male Sardinian population, and mandate further investigation of its involvement in hypertension in the general population.

Aquatic macroinvertebrates are a primary component of freshwater ecosystems and one of the most threatened by anthropogenic pressures. Among them, dragonflies are a charismatic group of growing scientific and social interest. However, little is known about the natural history of several species. One paradigmatic example is the declining Orthetrum nitidinerve, a Western Mediterranean endemic anisopteran. We reviewed published and new data on this species, addressing distribution, autecology, and conservation (with a focus on Italy), and provide its first genetic characterization and phylogenetic placement within the genus. In Italy, the species is known from 50 sites so far (only 17 breeding populations) located in Sardinia and Sicily (1841–2019, only 22 from 1990 onward). Records from continental Italy are due to misidentification. The flight period in Italy spans between May and September. Habitat consists of permanent freshwater (mostly helocrene sources, seepages, and small brooks), slow-flowing, shallow, with muddy bottom deposits at elevation from the sea level up to 1000 m asl. All the breeding populations are found in open and sunny landscapes, almost invariably in extensive pasturelands. The species has strongly declined in Sicily, whereas several large populations still occur in Sardinia. The major threats identified so far are agriculture and grazing intensification or abandonment and drought/source desiccation determined by water overexploitation and climate change. The first ever provided mitochondrial COI barcode and ITS nuclear sequences allowed a first tentative phylogenetic placement of the species as a sister group of the O. brunneum/O. lineostigma lineage.

In 2024, Trentino-South Tyrol was the Italian region where both women and men were predicted to live the longest lives in the whole peninsula. In the German-speaking region, the life expectancy at birth of men was almost 83 years, whereas women were expected to live almost 87 years. The second best ranked region was different for males and females. In Veneto, this figure stood at about 82 years for males and in Veneto at 86 years for females. When compared to the country’s average, women in Trentino-South Tyrol were expected to live roughly three years longer. Long life span and low birth rate Around 20 percent of the Italian population in 2023 was above 65 years. Together with a long life expectancy, Italy also has very low birth and fertility rates. In 2024, the country resulted among the 20 states with the lowest fertility rate in the world. One of the longest-living nations From a global perspective, Italy was the ninth country in the world with the highest life expectancy. The inhabitants of Japan and Liechtenstein were expected to live about 84 years, while Italians' life expectancy was of 83 years.