Italians who live longer and longer in a country where it is registered yet another negative sign for births: according to Istat data contained in the report 'Demographic indicators year 2023', deaths were 661 thousand, marking a decrease of 54 thousand units compared to the previous one.
75% of the detected drop particularly affects individuals aged at least 80 years old. A segment of the population, the latter, particularly affected in the years of pandemic during which it was subjected to a significant excess of early mortality, particularly in its most fragile component.
Early mortality from the range observed in different waves during the three-year period 2020-22, years in which there were 740 thousand, 701 thousand and 715 thousand deaths respectively, the highest ever recorded before, this led to a return almost to pre-pandemic mortality levels. In 2023, in fact, the generic mortality rate will be 11.2 per thousand. Although still higher than that of 2019 (10.6 per thousand), also due to an innate growth effect linked to the age structure of the population, it is much lower than the 12.1 per thousand of 2022 and at the same 12.5 per thousand in 2020.
Under these conditions, the drop in mortality translates into a significant jump in life expectancy at birth which reaches 83.1 years in 2023, an increase of six months compared to 2022. For men, life expectancy at birth reaches 81.1 years (+6 months compared to 2022) while for women, it reaches 85.2 years.i.e. a gain over 2022 slightly lower than that of men (+5 months). Thus, if men have returned to their pre-pandemic survival level (precisely 81.1 years in 2019), women still have room for recovery (85.4 years in 2019).
In the North, life expectancy at birth is 81.7 years for men and 85.7 years for women; the former gain seven months in 2022, the women six. Trentino-Alto Adige confirms itself as the region with the highest life expectancy for both men (82.2) and women (86.5); Valle d'Aosta/Aosta Valley is the region with the greatest gain compared to the previous year, one year for men and eight months for women.
In the Center, life expectancy at birth is slightly lower than in the North, 81.6 years for men and 85.6 years for women: for the former, the increase compared to 2022 is six months , while for the seconds, it is four. The highest life expectancy among men is in Tuscany (81.9), for women in Marche and Umbria (85.9).
In the South, the lowest values of life expectancy at birth are recorded, 80 years for men and 84.3 years for women. For men, there is a range of variation from a minimum of 79.4 years in Campania to a maximum of 80.6 years in Abruzzo. The same thing is found among women, where they however go from 83.6 years in Campania to 85.5 years in Abruzzo.
Thus, if Trentino-Alto Adige presents itself as the region where life is the oldest, Campania, for its part, continues to have the lowest life expectancy. In 2023, there is a gap of 2.9 years between the two territorial realities, considering men and women together, which shows no sign of reduction but rather of growth (it was 2.2 in 2003, 2. 7 in 2013)