The brain drain from the South: 'It costs over 4 billion. Every year 134,000 students and 36,000 graduates pack their bags'
Focus by Censis and Confcooperative. Graduates in Stem disciplines (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) account for just 22.4% of the national total, with an 11% gap compared to the demographic weight of the South. And innovative start-ups? Only 28.3% of the total
by Andrea Carli
Key points
It is a silent haemorrhage that jeopardises the present and future of the South of Italy. The Censis - Confcooperative report 'South, the great escape', released today, Wednesday 12 November, speaks clearly: every year 134,000 students and 36,000 graduates leave. A brain drain that costs that area over 4 billion. "A transfer of wealth that goes up from the South taking the road to the North," observes Maurizio Gardini, number one of Confcooperative. "It is a social, economic, demographic, cultural loss," he adds. "A silent impoverishment of resources that empties entire territories. A piece of the future ruling class that goes away, leaving behind questions about the destiny of Southern Italy'.
An economic loss, therefore: 157 million euro evaporated from the coffers of southern universities. Resources that materialise elsewhere, in the universities of the Centre-North, where higher tuition fees (2,066 euro compared to 1,173 in the South) have yielded 277 million. The bill for southern families? Another 120 million per year differential. The South pays more to see its children go.
The number of enrolled students from the South and the Islands who choose universities in the Centre-North, while fluctuating, remains at high levels: from 22,957 in the 2016/17 academic year, it goes up to 22,396 in 2020/21, and then drops to 16,545 in 2024/25. This last decline, it is pointed out, "could be interpreted as a positive sign, but it should be read in the light of the depopulation that particularly affects the regions of southern Italy. It may therefore not necessarily derive from a greater retention capacity of universities in the South, but rather from a physiological reduction in the potential number of students'.
Even more significant is the figure on university students residing in the Mezzogiorno who attend universities in the Centre-North: from 132,755 in 2016/17 to 136,708 in 2020/21, and then to 134,207 in 2023/24. "This is a massive and essentially stable flow of human capital that leaves its territory of origin to train elsewhere, with little likelihood of returning once it has completed its studies".
The most popular cities: Rome, Milan and Turin
The preferred destination for students living in the Mezzogiorno and moving to the Centre-North is Rome. In fact, the province attracted during the 2023/2024 academic year precisely 32,895 students, about a quarter of the overall share (25.06%). The provinces of Milan (19,090, 14.54%), Turin (16,840, 12.83%), Bologna (11,813, 9%) and Pisa (6,381, 4.86%) follow at a great distance.
