The North-South gap in Italy continues to widen in every social and economic sector and people from the south are once again migrating north, according to the annual report from national statistics bureau Istat.
In 2006, the report said, the number of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 holding jobs in the so-called Mezzogiorno was only one third of what it was in the north. Unemployment in the south was 34.3% of the labor force, compared to 13.4% in the northwest and 11% in the northeast.
Teh report also found that more than 25% of students in the southern regions of Campania, Puglia, Sicily and Sardinia leave school with only a middle-school diploma.
Other evidence of the North-South divide highlighted by the Istat report included that 5% of people living in the south do not have enough to eat and that 70% of poor Italian families live in the south.
The average salary of people living in the south is about 75% of what it is in the north. The gap is even more extreme a regional level, with an average income in Lombardy of 32,000 euros compared to 21,000 euros in Sicily.
In the south 27.5% of families live on a single pension, compared with 21,2% in the north.
Commenting on the Istat report, Premier Romano Prodi said the situation in the south was an "anomalous reality".
"Some of these aspects are structural and place the south more on the southern shore of the Mediterranean and not on the European one," he added.
The data on the North-South gap, the premier said, "sends a clear message about which direction the government must move".
Istat's 2006 report also showed that while Italy's economy did pick up last year, its growth rate remained the slowest in Europe.
ITALIAN POPULATION GROWING OLDER.
Last year Italy had the oldest population in Europe and the second oldest in the world, after Japan. There are now 141 people in Italy aged 65 or over for every 100 people aged 15 or less.
One of the key reasons for the aging of the Italian population, Istat explained, is the low birthrate.
In 2006 the average Italian woman had 1.35 childrens, Istat figures showed. The birthrate would have been even lower had it not been for immigrant women who, with an average of 2.45 children each, have almost twice as many as Italians.
The other main reason for the aging of the population is life expectancy, which in Italy is higher than in almost any other European country. The average for Italian women is now 84 and for men 78.3.
