(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 22 - The Italian population is set to fall by 11.5 million over the next 50 years, national statistics agency ISTAT said Thursday.
    The continuing demographic decline will see the population drop from 59.2 million as of January 1, 2021, to 57.9 million in 2030, 54.2 in 2050 and 47.7 in 2070, said the institute in its latest demographic forecasts.
    The ratio of people at a working age (15-64 years) and those outside it (0-14 and over 65) will go from around 3 to 2 in 2021 to about 1 to 1 in 2050.
    In 10 years' time a population drop is forecast in 4 out of 5 Italian towns and cities, and in 9 out of 10 rural areas.
    People will continue to have fewer and fewer children, ISTAT said.
    By 2041, it said, just one in four families will have children.
    (ANSA).