Italy stopped having kids 40 years ago....they are a nation of seniors. Nature finds a way to handle nations full of seniors.
That’s not completely true. There are also many Italians under 40 - but they moved out of Italy.
Why?
Because Italy limited hire and fire - since companies couldn’t fire easily, they stopped hiring. If you got a job, you were unfireable. But getting a job was close to impossible
The median age in Italy is 46;The US, eg is 40. My guess is that southern Italy is also younger and also warmer