Despite financial incentives, Sardinia’s rural areas are still involved in an existential demographic crisis. There are villages where a child has not been born for 10 years.
It is one of the most stunning islands of the Mediterranean, but that does not leave it safe. Sardinha faces a demographic crisis that threatens its own existence. While tourists continue to flood their beaches, the Local inhabitants are disappearing. The island’s population has fallen from 1.64 million to 1.57 million in the last three decades, and half now lives in only two urban areas. In many rural cities, schools are closed and houses are empty.
It is the fault of the dizzying fall of the birth rate. The island has an average of 0.91 children per woman, the lower birth rate in Italy, which already has one of the lowest rates in Europe. Combined with high unemployment and better perspectives in other locations, these numbers drained the maids from the interior of the island. “The last child was born here 10 years ago“Said Maria Anna Camedda, mayor of Baradili, the smallest village of Sardinia, now with just 76 inhabitants.
To combat the situation, the regional government introduced a series of incentives: even 15 thousand euros to buy or remodel a house20 thousand euros to start a local business and monthly subsidies for children from 600 euros for the firstborn and 400Euros for each additional child up to five years old.
Some cities, like Ollolai, went further – offering houses abandoned by 1 euroin an attempt to attract the newcomers. But even generous offerings could not contain the decline. Foreign residents represent only 3.3% of Sardinia’s population, well below the Italian average of 8.9%, and immigration did not compensate for population losses.
The crisis is so serious that the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently authorized the 500,000 foreign workers’ entry across the country to face the scarcity of labor. However, Rome’s official documents admit that some remote regions “cannot set goals to reverse depopulation,” suggesting, instead, a plan to “manage the chronic decline.”
Baradili refuses to surrender. The village has added its own incentive of 10,000 euros and boasts a pool, sports facilities and even an Autocaravan park. In 2022, Four new families have movedbringing nine new residents, reports the. Similar efforts are emerging throughout the sardine, supported by a small but growing community of foreign settlers attracted by the quiet charm of the island.
Still, the way forward is uncertain. The famous € 1 € houses project, launched in 2016, attracted global attention, but had Limited Long Term Results. Of the 100,000 buyers interested, only a few families have established themselves. Many new owners underestimated renewal costs or reselling their homes. The population is still declining, lowering from 1300 to 1150 residents from the beginning of the project.
However, local leaders do not lose hope. The mayor of Ollolai, Francesco Columbu, says that his city has gone through worse things. “We survived the pests in the seventeenth century. Let’s survive this. The quality of life here is better and we are one hour from the most beautiful beaches in the world,” he said. “Beautiful things never die“.
