FILE PHOTO: People cross the street in Rome Italy, August 29, 2019. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca/File Photo
ROME (Reuters) -Italy's working age population is set to shrink by more than a fifth over the next 25 years, national statistics agency Istat said on Monday, highlighting the country's severe demographic challenges.
Italy is battling with a falling birth rate and a shrinking population. Last year new births dropped to a record low of around 370,000, and the population fell by 37,000 to 58.93 million, continuing a decade-long trend.
In its latest demographic forecast, Istat predicted that the number of people in the 15-64 age group would fall from 37.4 million in 2024 to 29.7 million in 2050, with their share of the total resident population falling to 54.3% from 63.5%.
In the same period, the percentage of residents over the age of 65 is projected to rise to 34.6% of the total, from 24.3% currently, and the share of children up to the age of 14 to fall to 11.2% from 12.2%.
Italy's long-declining birth rate is considered a national emergency. But despite Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her predecessors' pledges to tackle the issues, no one has so far been able to halt the drop.
Istat estimated on Monday that Italy's resident population would fall to 54.7 million by 2050, although it added that its forecast had a large margin of variability and uncertainty linked to migration trends.
In a report last year, Scope Ratings said Italy's demographics were the worst in Europe in terms of economic growth potential between 2023 and 2040, with a rapidly ageing population posing a threat to strained public finances.
(Reporting by Antonella Cinelli. Editing by Alvise Armellini and Mark Potter)
