[Birth rate, death rate and aging of the Italian population in the last 25 years]. / Natalita', mortalita' ed invecchiamento della popolazione Italiana negli ultimi venticinque anni.

PIP: Birth rate in Italy remained relatively stable between 1951-69, to start about then to decline sharply at a rate of 20% over the national territory, with peaks of 33-36% in the northern regions. During the same years 1951-77 general mortality has remained more or less the same, with rates going from 9.9% in 1950, to 9.6% in 1977. Net reproductive rate has been constantly on the decrease since 1964, to reach 3.6/1000 in 1977, a median position in an European context. Zero population growth has been reached and surpassed in most northern regions. The most obvious consequence of such demographic behavior is the aging of the population; if in 1936 there was less than 1 person over 65 for every child under 5, the ratio was 1/1 in 1956, 1/1.4 in 1971, and 1/2 in 1977. The number of females over 65 is much larger than the number of males. Due to the differences in birth rate between the northern and the southern regions, aging of the population is greater in the north than in the south; the problem for tomorrow's labor force is obvious. It would be necessary to start programs of redistribution of the population, especially in rural areas, and to organize programs aiming at the insertion of the older population into the still active population.^ieng