Data Card - World Population Day and Cohesion Policies
On July 11, 1987, the world population reached 5 billion people for the first time. Since 1989, two years later, by decision of the United Nations, this day has been commemorated as World Population Day and celebrated since 1990 in over 90 countries.
On the occasion of World Population Day 2024, OpenCoesione is publishing a Data Card that illustrates some projects financed by cohesion policy in Italy to harmonize economic development and reduce inequalities related to ongoing demographic changes. These are themes that the international community has been addressing for 70 years, when our country hosted the first meeting in Rome at the FAO, where United Nations countries were called to reflect on the various aspects of the “demographic revolution” that, since the end of World War II, has seen an unprecedented increase in the population growth rate. After the meeting in Italy, the World Population Conference convened again in 1965 in Belgrade (former Yugoslavia) and then in 1974 in Bucharest (Romania), marking growing attention from the United Nations to the issue of population explosion in relation to themes connected to local development.
In 1974, it was designated as World Population Year, emphasizing the importance of considering every social, economic, humanitarian, and cultural aspect connected to population growth. Already fifty years ago, the importance of a territorial definition (at the level of individual States) of policies aimed at addressing the demographic issue was emphasized, with the adoption of a World Population Plan of Action, a document that introduces some of the themes related to access to basic services that still today define the design of public policies in relation to the issue.
The theme of World Population Day 2024 is “To Leave No One Behind, Count Everyone”, highlighting the importance of data to represent even the most marginalized individuals and communities, with the goal of ensuring their access to essential services. As for Italy, although the global scenario sees a population increase, provisional data from the National Institute of Statistics indicate that the population is still declining, reaching 58.99 million people in 2023. The Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) explains that a migration balance almost entirely compensates for the negative natural balance, also contributing to slowing down the aging process. According to the Istat report on demographic indicators, “the arrival of new immigrants from abroad not only directly contributes to population growth but also rejuvenates the age structure, invigorating the active population groups, and has an effect, albeit increasingly weaker, on fertility levels”.
Cohesion policies, among public policies, aim to anticipate and accompany population transformations by ensuring adequate services in the territories to address these profound demographic changes.