(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 16 - Italy's population continued to age in 2023, so much so that it had almost six over-64s for every child under six last year, Istat said in a report on Monday.
    To be precise, the ratio was 5.8 elderly people for every small child, up from 5.6 in 2022 and 3.8 in 2011.
    The national statistics agency said the average age of the population rose to 46.6 years in 2023, up by 0.2% on 2022.
    It said the average age was 48 for women and 45.2 for men in Italy.
    The country's youngest region is Campania, with an average age of 44.2 years. Istat said births continued to decline last year, with 379,890 babies being born here, just over six for every 1,000 residents and a drop of around 13,000 on 2022.
    It said the proportion of the population aged under 15 dropped from 12.4% to 12.2%, while the proportion aged 65 or over rose from 24% to 24.3%, with the 15-64 age group steady at 63.5%.
    The agency said life expectancy at birth was 81 for men, up five months on 2022, and 85.1 for women, up four months.
    Istat said Italy's population was 58.971.230 at the end of 2023, down 25,971 on the previous year.
    The province of Bergamo, meanwhile, has come top of il Sole 24 Ore's annual quality of life ranking for the first time, coming in ahead of Trento and Bolzano in the 2024 index, which the financial daily released on Monday.
    It is quite a turnaround for the Lombard province, which came 52nd in 2020 when it was a COVID-19 hotspot.
    It climbed four places with respect to last year to take the top spot.
    As in previous years, the top of the ranking is dominated by northern provinces and southern ones hog the lower end.
    Reggio Calabria was bottom of the 107 provinces while the province of Naples was 106th.
    The big metropolitan cities dropped places.
    Milan fell by four to 12th, Florence slipped by 30 to 36th after three years in the top 10, Turin fell by 22 to 58th and Roma dropped 24 positions to 59th.
    The index ranks the provinces on the basis of 90 indicators split into six categories: wealth and consumer spending; business and work; environment and services; demography, society and health; justice and security; culture and free time. (ANSA).