Venice population and why we are so few.
Venice’s population is diminishing. Every year fewer people choose to live their everyday lives in the lagoon city. Every year the red figures hit us with the image of a depressed and aging city.
The number of residents in the historical center of Venice in 2024 is just below 50.000. In the early 50s in the same area lived more than 175.000. Venice has had a steeper decline in inhabitants in the city center, and it has lasted longer, than comparable Italian cities.
Since the beginning of 2000 when mass tourism truly hit the lagoon city, organizations for the residents in Venice regularly protest against a phenomenon out of control. Their anger is directed not so much towards the tourists but more so against the politicians and the authorities who supposedly refuse to guarantee even the most elementary service for someone who lives in the old town, schools, groceries, and healthcare. In 2019 under the slogan Mi no vado via, I’m not going away thousands of Venetians joined the protests in a joint effort to create awareness.
How many people live in Venice?
Since then that effort and the force with which the protests arose around Venice has somewhat faded. One reason for this is of course that despite protests and various attempts to reach public opinion, there are fewer people in Venice every year. The truth of the matter is that people are still leaving. The historical city of Venice, which is the big fish in the middle of the lagoon, has as of today, January 29, 2024, 49.265 residents. That’s not much if you want to make a difference. But the biggest issue is that this figure is still diminishing.
With that comes a general change in the character of the residents. Less “normal people”, folks with a salary from a job, with children or not, who need shops, schools, services, and houses. When they go they leave room for entrepreneurs and tourism managers… people who work with entertainment, tourism, publicity, or marketing. And they have slightly different demands. The artificialization of Venice might not disturb a hotel manager the same way it does a primary school teacher.
But let’s look at the figures:
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General changes in infrastructure and demographics.
Nobody is making children anymore.
So from around the 50s, the historical center of Venice lost more than two-thirds of its population. On the mainland, the situation is different, but from approximately the 70s, Mestre and Marghera too have lost quite a big chunk of their inhabitants. The loss of residents in Venice, the island city, is huge. From any urbanistic point of view, a drop like that of Venice would be very challenging. Still, what happened to Venice wasn’t all that uncommon in Italy in those years. And it has to do with the change in infrastructure, at least to some extent.
Before WW2 the birth rate in Italy was around 3 children for every couple. In the first years after the war, that general trend continued general continued. But very soon a significant drop in natality could be seen. Later in the 70s another drop presented itself and at the beginning of the 1980s, every Italian woman had no more than 1,5 children. That is obviously not a sustainable level, and unfortunately, it continued to drop to what we have today… 1,25 children for every woman. Fewer children means fewer Italians and fewer Venetians. A normal consequence, but that’s not the whole explanation.
And people do not want or can’t afford to live in the city center anymore.
Another important factor is that fewer people stayed in the city center in general, in all of the city centers, all over Europe. The growth after the war has been mainly in the suburbs or in satellite cities, of course depending on the economic and geographical structure of the city. But we have to remember that Venice, that is, the historical Venice built out there on the sandbanks, is all center. The suburbs are practically all on the mainland.
Comparing Venice to other Italian cities shows an interesting context. Because much of the demographic tendencies that are present in Venice can be found in other areas too. Here is an interesting table showing the population in the 15 biggest Italian cities during the late 19th, 20th, and the beginning of the 21st century. The figures show the population of the whole city, suburban areas included. For Venice, that means Mestre and Marghera.
Population in the 15 biggest Italian cities from 1880:
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The fertility rate has plummeted.
It’s quite easy to see that all cities, more or less, top their population around 1970. After that, it’s going down. That lines up well with the significant drop in births around that time. As already stated, the fertility rate among Italians is now as low as 1,25 children per couple. That’s among the lowest in Europe. Authorities in Italy have been very slow to pick up on this problem. The tendency could have been perceived already in the 1980s, but our leaders didn’t want to see it. Maybe politicians get blindfolded once they get into office. The total number of newborns increased a little at the beginning of 2000 because of the immigrants. Many of the recent immigrant groups have substantially more children than the Italians. But after 2015 fewer immigrants enter, so that kind of birth rate artificial breathing is no more.
It’s very easy to see that the trends in Venice as a whole don’t differ very much from the other Italian cities. The decrease in inhabitants is greater and goes on for a longer period, but the population curve is similar. Added to the fact of decreasing Italian city population comes the moving away from the city center to the suburbs. In the case of Venice, that means moving from the lagoon city to the mainland. But Venice is a very special case in that sense. No other Italian city has so clear boundaries between the city center, Venice, and the suburbs, Mestre and Marghera. Something that in other citisìes is a migration from the center to the outskirts, in Venice becomes a radical move to another part of the territory… Like moving to a completely different city.
People flee the center and move towards the outskirts.
In Venice, the escape from the city center also started a little earlier than in the rest of Italy. Already right after the war, people started to move away from the Islands to the mainland. in other cities that exact same trend started a few years later. It’s a small detail. The overall problem is exactly the same as in other places, though.
Milan, Bologna, Turin, Naples, Bari, Palermo… It’s more or less the same in every Italian city. People escape the hustle and bustle of the city center. In many large Italian cities, life as a downtown resident can be challenging. Schools, hospitals, and many other services disappear, and the normal shops close and leave room for souvenir boutiques, aimed at tourists and temporary visitors. Rents go up, it’s noisy and unsafe, you can’t find parking for your car and even if you do, it costs a fortune.
Many Italian cities struggle with these same problems. And in many Italian cities, the houses right there in the city center are definitely expensive. That’s actually something that pops up all the time when you discuss why people don’t want to live in Venice. It’s too expensive.
Let’s take a look.
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House prices in Venice
Not even that is particular or in any way unique for Venice. It’s the same story all over Italy and maybe all over Europe. In fact, these tendencies are, at least to some extent, global. The city centers become less populated and more expensive. It’s just that Venice, from a geographic point of view, is uncommon. The center is 8 kilometers away and geographically isolated from the mainland.
The statistics of house prices in Venice are also somewhat distorted by the fact that so many ultra-billionaires, actors, writers, and other famous and wealthy people live here. Some palaces go for tens of millions of euros and that affects the statistics. The difference between Mestre and Venice is slightly less than what it would seem if you just read the figures.
Schools, hospitals, and other social services in Venice.
Let’s take a look at the next reason for the diminishing numbers in the island city… The lack of service. Many people argue that, as a major reason. The fact that service institutions are disappearing and the ever-smaller population is left alone to try to cope with health- and educational issues. Schools are few and spread out, and the Venice hospital is getting less and less funding. It’s getting harder by the day to raise a family.
Let’s check that too. But this is the last table, I promise.
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Not even this seems valid. Venice actually has more schools than Mestre, considering the number of people living there. It has a hospital, and many people from the mainland go there instead of the hospital in Mestre, for the simple reason that it’s less crowded… It’s easier to get to a doctor.
The Venice population is still diminishing though.
So what is the truth about the residents’ evasion crisis? Why has the Venice population diminished by 70% since 1951?
I would say that to some extent it depends on house prices, anyway. It’s expensive but then again, not more than any other comparable city. Still, a young couple setting up a house for the first time has to choose between a small apartment on the ground floor in Venice with high water coming in through the front door… Or a nice single house with a garden in Mestre. The money is the same, so it’s easy to imagine what they would opt for.
And it’s not just the house that is expensive. Every other aspect of living is much more expensive too. Restauration of an apartment in Venice costs around 50% more just because it’s situated there. Any craftsman or artisan charges much more when working in Venice. The new fridge or TV, that you have to buy, costs more because the transport from Piazzale Roma to your house is expensive. And it continues like that…
But it doesn’t depend in any way on schools, healthcare, and other services in the lagoon city. Those are actually better in Venice than on the mainland.
Instead, two major factors determine the residential habits of the Venetians. Two reasons why so many have left, and still leave the old city:
- The evasion started before the other cities. This of course does not affect today’s diminishing population, but it’s an explanation why the figures are bigger than in many other Italian cities. Already after the war, people started abandoning Venice, and in those days it was for other reasons than the increasing tourism. The escape from the city center has gone on for a longer period. The trend could be seen as having lasted for a longer period, but not being steeper.
- The artificialization of the city. To me, this is the biggest issue and maybe the most difficult to resolve. It’s tourism in itself that causes the biggest problem, and that’s not only the visitor’s fault, but also our own. The growing impersonality, the superficiality, the lack of quality and genuineness in all things. Every day we see shops, craftsmen, barbers, pharmacies, and others closing just to leave room for bars, restaurants, hotels, and tourist traps of all sorts. And it’s not nice to always have to be careful. and always speak in dialect, just to avoid being ripped off…
Conclusion…
So what can we do about it? I really don’t know, because as we sum it all up, it’s not about expensiveness and it’s not about lack of service. And it’s not substantially worse than in other famous tourist magnets, considering the special character of the floating city. Maybe we just have to live with it. In a small town with almost 30 million tourists a year, of course, there have to be consequences.
Which brings me to the many futile efforts to limit the tourist flow. The new and finally implemented tourist tax is one such effort. But Venice lives and thrives on the tourist industry. Without the tourists, Venice would be no more than other small towns up here in the northeast corner of Italy… A Caorle, or a Chioggia, but without the beaches. And if so, the depopulation would probably have been even greater.
And I think about the real crisis that hit Venice in the past… The plague that time after time killed a huge part of the city and left the surviving half with not only grief but with mountains of dead bodies to cope with… And the many wars against Genova, against the Turks, the Holy Roman Empire, the French, the Austrians, and many many others,… And maybe this is just another possibility for the Venetians to demonstrate their ability to stand strong when the wind blows. At least the few still standing…