(Finance) – A paper of the Bank of Italy highlighted that the progressive increase of theretirement age has a “side effect”, affecting fertility rates and contributing to drop in births. A phenomenon that manifests itself above all in the countries of southern Europe with more gaps in terms of policies and services childcare services, and where a young couple relies heavily on the figure of their grandparents to start a family. Entrusting children to grandparents is in fact synonymous with savings.
The paper underlined how the reforms social security launched in recent decades in Europe to contain public spending can also have an impact on the growth demographic. A phenomenon that concerns almost exclusively i Countries of the Mediterranean areawhile it is almost nil in Continental Europe and in Northern countries, where welfare policies are more effective and services such as nursery schools are more widespread and less burdensome for young couples’ pockets.
Based on updated Eurostat data, the percentage of children under three years of age who attend nursery school in Holland is equal to 74.2%, in Denmark at 69.1%, in France at 57.1%. L’Italy is at 33.4%, just above the Greece (32.3%). While Istat numbers certify that in Italy spending for kindergartens is struggling to rise, while costs continue to increase and the difficulties of families in paying tuition fees, especially in a period of high inflation like the current one.