Italy's brain drain continues amid persistent North-South gap in living standards: ISTAT

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ROME, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- The gap between Italy's wealthier, industrialized northern regions and its chronically impoverished South increased in 2017, as did the percentage of university-educated Italians who emigrated to northern European countries, ISTAT national statistics institute reported Thursday.

Last year there was a 35.3 percent gap between North and South in terms of disposable income, a 32.4 percent difference in household consumption, and a 45 percent gap in per capita gross domestic product (GDP), up from 44.1 percent in 2016, ISTAT said.

Per capita GDP is an indicator of a nation's living standards over time.

Last year, per capita GDP stood at over 35,000 euros in Italy's northern regions, compared to 30,000 euros in the central regions and 18,500 euros in the South.

This compares to an average per capita GDP of 27,700 euros in the EU-28 and of 30,400 euros in the 19-member eurozone, according to 2017 data compiled by European statistics institute Eurostat.

Luxembourg ranked top at 80,300 euros per capita while Albania stood at the bottom at 3,700 euros per capita, Eurostat said.

Last year's national GDP growth, which stood at +1.6 percent overall, was also spread unevenly across Italy: the economy expanded by 2.2 percent in the Northwest, by 1.9 percent in the Northeast, by 1 percent in the South, and by 0.9 percent in the central regions.

Per capita spending in terms of household consumption last year was about 20,000 euros in the North, 18,000 euros per capita in the Center, and 13,000 euros in the South, ISTAT explained.

Separately on Thursday, ISTAT said that the South has lost almost 2 million inhabitants over the past 20 years "due to internal mobility" as southerners migrated to the wealthier northern regions.

In 2017, the favored destinations for these domestic migrants were the northern regions of Emilia-Romagna (29 percent), Trentino Alto-Adige (27 percent), Lombardia and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (both 18 percent).

Also in 2017, a total of 115,000 Italians emigrated north of the border. Of these, 28,000 were university educated, up by 4 percent over 2016.

Their favorite destinations were the UK (18 percent), Germany (16.1 percent), France (10.8 percent) and Switzerland (9.1 percent).

Over the past five years, over 244,000 Italians aged 25 years and up have emigrated, and 64 percent of these have a medium-high educational level, according to ISTAT.

The economic gap between Italy's North and South was reflected in this year's national elections, when the populist Five Star Movement led by southerner Luigi Di Maio made huge inroads in the impoverished southern regions with pledges of a basic income for the poor and the unemployed, while the rightwing League of northerner Matteo Salvini won largely in the northern industrial regions with promises to cut business taxes and lower the retirement age. Enditem

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