Figures released by the Italian government reveal that emigration from Italy rose by 30% in 2012 and that emigrants are becoming younger.
Data compiled by the Anagrafe della Popolazione Italiana Residente all’Estero for the Ministry of the Interior shows that the number of Italians who emigrated in 2012 was 78,941 up from 60,635 in 2011. Figures show that an increasing number of young people are choosing to leave the crisis-hit country, which is undergoing its longest recession since World War II.
Figures indicate that emigrants are becoming younger. In 2011, Italian citizens aged from 20 to 40 accounted for 28.3% of the total number of emigrants. Whereas in 2012, the young made up 44.8% of the total number of Italians who left the country.
Media commentators suggest that the so-called brain drain is because of the high level of youth unemployment, which has reached 37%. In February 2013, unemployment hit 11.6%, while the previous month, unemployment hit a record high of 11.7%.
Most of the emigrants were from northern Italy and more men emigrated than women. The preferred destinations for emigrants are Germany, Switzerland and the UK.
Since 1990, 2,320,645 Italians have emigrated, and some 600,000 of those who left were aged between 20 and 40.
