Rapallo – In the era of the birth rate decline, there is a sensational sign of countertrend in Santa Maria del Campo and surrounding areas, in the hamlets of Rapallo. «Between Santa Maria, San Massimo and San Martino di Noceto, in 2023 we have had more baptisms than funerals. We verified that it had not happened since 2000″, reports the parish priest of the three parishes, Don Davide Sacco. It is true that the latest official data from Istat, that of 2022, indicated an increase in the population of Rapallo, which, compared to the previous year, had gained 114 units, settling at 29,221. The figure, however, was negative after eight years and in any case was not due to the natural balance but to the arrival of new inhabitants. Even in 2022, in the city as a whole, there were 450 deaths, compared to 200 births.
In Santa Maria and its surroundings, however, an anomalous demographic situation has evidently occurred. «Young couples have come to live here – the parish priest explains further – In particular, the Pineta area was all second homes and is now entirely inhabited. Perhaps the property prices were favourable.”
Certainly, it is an inverse trend in the city centre, where houses remain neither rented nor sold, now that the new economic phenomenon is that of furnished apartments for holiday use. The fact is that, during the year just ended, overall, between the three parishes, Don Davide imparted the baptism of 36 children, compared to 34 funerals celebrated. The most positive data is that of San Massimo, where it closed 5 to 1.
«We have just passed the year of Covid, in which there were so many funerals, and we welcome this year's data with pleasure», he concludes. Certainly, this is a situation that can give rise to reflection. The fractional and peripheral territory can come back more and more attractive, for those (not many, to be honest, based on the general situation) who are in the conditions and willing to have children. Rapallo, given the great availability of houses which kept their prices down, has always been a magnet for residents compared to its luxurious neighbor Santa Margherita, where the demographic decline is a profound and permanent problem. Also in Zoagli, on the other city borderthere is a lot of debate about safeguarding demographics, with the Municipality buying houses to be used as public residential housing.
The population of Rapallo, in recent decades, has grown with immigration, both internal and foreign, with the second homes of the Milanese gradually becoming first ones. As mentioned, the introduction of holiday homes has absolutely slowed down the trend but in certain areas the conditions can be created for greater residentiality.— © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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