The ageing of the Italian population. Presentation at the Rotary Club of Milan

On April 18, 2024, Roberto Tribuno, as a member of the Rotary Club Milan Cordusio, was invited to discuss the aging Italian population and its inevitable consequences.

During his presentation, Tribuno highlights the fact that climate change and rising average age are two highly impactful factors in our country’s GDP sustainability. This is the focus of his talk, which is then discussed with interesting statistical data: there are approximately 14 million people over 65 in Italy, or approximately 23.5% of the population. Italy is first in Europe in terms of old age index, second in the world after Japan, with an increasingly low birth rate every year and where the number of deaths is higher than the number of births. In this context, there are approximately 3.8 million non-self-sufficient elderly Italians. Italy is also the country where the gap between taxpayers and pension recipients is narrowing. It is also estimated that approximately 2.5 million Italians have given up treatment for economic reasons.

Finally, he analyzes care facilities dedicated to the elderly based on their needs: from traditional nursing homes, which are often facilities with a high hospital content, to more recent senior housing, which is more dedicated to those with greater self-sufficiency.

The topics discussed by Tribuno attracted great interest from participants, considering that Italians will increasingly need healthcare services in the face of a whole series of problems that will need to be considered and addressed, such as the decline in births, the depopulation of smaller towns, and healthcare spending that cannot meet all citizens’ demands resulting in increased private spending, lengthening the time for medical visits, giving up treatment and many other topics of great interest, such as the lack of a real reform of care for dependent elderly people.