Italy is not a country for young people: for every nine under-34s who go abroad, only one comes from advanced economies
According to the Cnel report on the attractiveness of Italy, between 2011-2024 630,000 young people emigrated and the migratory balance was -441,000. The cost incurred by families and, for education alone, by the public sector to raise and educate young Italian emigrants amounts to 159.5 billion euro. 7.5% of GDP up in smoke
Key points
- Youth emigration numbers and the cost to the community
- Of those leaving Italy, 42.1% are university graduates
- Ocse: Italy ranked 31st out of 38 for talent attractiveness
- Only 1.9% of young people in advanced economies choose Italy
- Brunetta: act on wages, cost of living, innovation and research to reverse the trend
Italy is not a country that attracts young people: out of every nine under 34 who leave Italy, there is only one foreign peer from the main advanced economies who chooses to arrive in our country. In 2011-24 there were 55 thousand arrivals in Italy of young people from the top ten advanced nations to which young Italians go (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain, Switzerland and the USA). In the same period 486 thousand young Italians emigrated to those countries: the first destination is the United Kingdom (26.5%), followed by Germany (21.2%), Switzerland (13%), France (10.9%) and Spain (8.2%).
Youth emigration figures and the cost to the community
In 2024 78 thousand young people left Italy and compared to the entries of immigrants from advanced economies in the 18-34 age group, the balance is -61 thousand. If we look at the period 2011-2024, 630,000 young people - 49% from the northern regions and 35% from the south - emigrated from Italy, equal to 7% of the young residents in Italy, and the migratory balance is -441,000.
The Cnel Report 'Italy's attractiveness for young people from advanced countries' also quantifies the value of the human capital that left our country in 2011-24, which amounts to 159.5 billion euro, estimated on the migratory balance and as the cost borne by families and, for education alone, by the public sector, to raise and educate young Italian emigrants. In terms of GDP, the value of human capital outflow over the 2011-24 period is 7.5%.
Of those leaving Italy, 42.1% are university graduates
The paradox is that with the denatality - in 2025 we will touch a new historical minimum since the Unification of Italy, probably dropping below 350,000 newborns - and the progressive ageing of the population, young people are a rare and precious resource. Looking at the number of young emigrants leaving Italy in the three-year period 2022-2024, 42.1% are university graduates, up from 33.8% in the entire 2011-24 period. The highest peaks are recorded in Trentino (50.7%), Lombardy (50.2%), Friuli-Venezia Giulia (49.8%), Emilia-Romagna (48.5%) and Veneto (48.1%). Female graduates account for 44.3% of female emigrants in the three-year period 2022-24, against 40.1% of males. It is in the regions of Southern Italy that the greatest difference between the female and male share is registered: the difference is 9.5 percentage points in Campania (42.5% vs. 33%), 9.4 points in Apulia (42.9% vs. 33.5%) and 9.3 in Abruzzo (43.1%, 33.8%).
Ocse: Italy ranked 31st out of 38 for talent attractiveness
Italy ranks 31st out of 38 OECD countries in terms of attractiveness to highly qualified workers; it fails to attract young people from abroad, nor to retain those who grow up there.
The Cnel study refers to Italy's synthetic index of migration flows (Isfm). The Isfm measures the attractiveness of a country or territory, and is the result of the ratio between outflows to the main advanced nations and arrivals from those same nations. The lower the Isfm, the greater the attractiveness, because more young foreigners arrive than young Italians emigrate. Well, practically all the southern regions show a high Isfm, so they have low attractiveness. High values in the North are recorded for Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Veneto.
