Population prospects and problems of Italian Regions

Italian population is experiencing well-known dynamics which are common to other developed European countries: persistent low fertility rate, long life-expectancy, fast ageing, urban diffusion on wider areas and sudden changes in migration processes. Some regions have experienced such phenomena well in advance, while others – which had a delay with respect to the end of the first demographic transition – rapidly caught up. The data analysed in this work show that regional differences in the rhythms and patterns of mortality, ageing and fertility (the so-called second demographic transition) determine a strong push towards the homogenization of demographic behaviours and open a space for a new phase of convergence in population dynamics. As a consequence of this homogenization of demographic patterns across the Italian peninsula the regional population structures, which are still significantly different, are converging as well, with some exceptions. The analysis highlights two fields that are strongly non-homogeneous: on the one hand, nuptial behaviours, in terms of both intensity and cadence (though other results show that also fertility cadence have the same pattern), and, on the other, population mobility