Europe's population peaks in 2029, deepening the South's demographic crisis

The European Union's population will peak in 2029 and then fall in the coming decades, according to a report published this week, as cited by the Local Italy. The projection underscores a continent-wide challenge that Italy—and Molise in particular—has been experiencing for years: ageing, emigration of the young, and a birth rate too low to sustain natural growth.

For Molise, the EU milestone arrives as an echo of a crisis already here. The region's population has contracted steadily since the 1990s as young people migrate north to Milan and Turin, or abroad to Germany and Switzerland in search of jobs. The region's median age has climbed above 45; fertility rates sit well below replacement level. Schools close; villages empty; the workforce shrinks. What the EU faces as a future challenge, Molise confronts as present reality.

The broader European trend—demographic decline—will eventually reshape labour markets, pension systems and tax bases across the bloc. But for peripheral regions like Molise, the timeline is compressed. By the time Brussels grapples with the fiscal and social consequences of an ageing continent, Molise may have already hollowed out entirely. The region's survival now depends on reversing emigration, a task that requires jobs, services and opportunity—precisely what the South has struggled to provide.