Demographic Crisis, Ageing and Health: a Multidimensional Analysis in Southeastern Umbria

Abstract

Since 2014 a severe demographic decline has been affecting Umbria, because of the worsening of the economic crisis. The elderly population is increasingly exposed to chronic pathologies. At the institutional and territorial level, health services are being merged and reduced and their quality is impoverished. The paper outlines a diachronic profile of the demographic and health conditions of the Valnerina (southeastern Umbria) – an inner area marked by a noticeable ageing population and already stressed on the socio-economic level by the 2016-2017 earthquake – and enumerates the main fields on which are indispensable institutional interventions aimed at mitigating the current socio-territorial imbalances.