Nations are made of people, and as people change, nations change. Sometimes nations disappear because the people disappear, either usually by moving or refusing to reproduce and then being replaced by another group.
Italy is an ancient nation, and while she is not ‘disappearing’, she is certainly changing. It is already interesting that she is the oldest nation in Europe. Amid migration to Italy from many nations, it is of note that her population is dying off, causing as Barrons reports by way of the AFP, a population decline.
Italy’s population is declining and becoming steadily older, according to new figures Tuesday from the national statistics agency.
At the end of 2019, Italy had 59,641,488 residents — some 175,000 fewer than the previous year, or a reduction of 0.3 percent, Istat said.
This represents just 207,000 more than in 2011, the year of the last census — and is the result only of immigration, it said.
“The very slight increase in the population since 2011 can be exclusively attributed to the foreign component,” the report said.
Between 2011 and 2019, the number of Italian nationals fell by almost 800,000, or 1.5 percent, despite more than one million foreigners taking Italian citizenship.
Meanwhile the number of foreign nationals living in the country rose by one million — up 25 percent to just over five million in 2019.
The figures also confirm the trend in Italy towards an ageing population — the average age has gone up by two years, to 45, since 2011.
The southern regions, including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, are the youngest but have also seen their populations shrink the most.
Again migrants buck the national trend — the average age of foreign nationals resident in Italy last year was 34.7 years, compared with 46.2 for Italian nationals. (source)
Italy is not alone in this trend. All of the nations of Europe are suffering serious declines, and any population growth is almost solely able to be attributed to migration from Africa and the Middle East or Central Asia. China, Japan, Korea, and the US are also having serious population declines. Latin America is either generally at or slightly below replacement levels. The only part of the world with sizeable population increases are in sub-Saharan Africa, the Muslim world, and south Asia.
It has been said many times, and cannot be said enough that this problem is entirely self-inflicted. No one is forcing people to avoid having children. To the contrary, it is the choice of people, driven by a slavish obedience to social norms that are knowingly bad but so many people refuse to respond in a contrary way to that is driving this.
Having children is a simple act, a lot of work, but when done well yields great results. One does not need a degree to have or raise children well, only a strong ethic and a lot of self-sacrifice and patience. Yet this is what is lacking- a desire to have them and the desire to sacrifice for their greater good, as they can only succeed by the parents giving of themselves with no direct benefit to themselves and only for another.
This is why the western world is suffering. While it is good to look out for one’s own interests, it has come at the cost of the future, consuming today what needs to be spent on building a future tomorrow. When this is combined with the lack of purpose that permeates modern life, it creates a situation where the purpose of one’s life is entirely selfish and therefore spending money on another is a virtue for a fool unless one is ‘getting’ a benefit from it.
There is a lot of talk about migration, but it is not the fault of the migrants for having children, or seeking a better life for themselves. They cannot be blamed for living what is objectively and what used to be a normal life in Europe, where people married and had children instead of solely thinking about themselves. The same situation is equally relevant in the US, where Hispanics have been criticized for many reason, but to accuse them of ‘invading’ is not true when statistically speaking, their birthrate are either at or slightly above replacement rates. It is not their fault for existing and being ‘fruitful’. Rather, the question is why have not the people in society who consider themselves ‘natives’ reproduced, if they value themselves so highly and their way of life?
This is the question that so few want to answer, and the reason is because they do not want to have children because it would involve sacrifice. Instead, selfishness is chosen, and while one can choose this, there is always a cost involved.
Since there is yet to be a clear indication of change, the current state of affairs in Italy is likely to remain the same and possibly become more acute. The same can be said about the rest of Europe. Naturally, these trends will have potentially long-term effects for European nationalism, accelerating it as they seek a scapegoat for decades of poor choices. However, it still does not deal with the root issue, which can only be solved by human choice, for if one truly loves one’ nation, one will have children, as it is written, man is to ‘be fruitful and multiply’, and if he does not want to possess it, then it will be given to another who does want to.