Demographic Decline of Venice

An ever growing problem in Venice within the past century has been its steady population decline. Between the years of 1966 and 2006, the population had dropped from 121,000 full-time residents to a mere 62,000. This number decreases by 800 people every year, and this rate of decline is only expected to grow due to the fact that 25% of Venice's population is over 64 years old. Both tourism and flooding have been held responsible for the shrinking population. More and more residents are turning out to be only part-time foreign residents, for instance, those who own summer houses in Venice. To accommodate tourism, more temporary lodging had to be built, resulting in the conversion of large houses into hotels. This ends up having a cyclic effect, since as permanent residences wither away, there becomes less accommodations for new permanent residents to settle. Also, the damage incurred during the flood of 1966 destroyed the ground levels of about 16,000 buildings and residents fled from these homes. Afterward, the presence of strict building codes made it nearly impossible to reconstruct these houses. As long as these problems persist, as they most likely will for the foreseeable future, finding a solution to reverse the demographic decline of Venice will prove to be an obstinate task.

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