Did COVID-19 enlarge spatial disparities in population dynamics? A comparative, multivariate approach for Italy

Leonardo Salvatore Alaimo; Bogdana Nosova; Luca Salvati

doi:10.1007/s11135-023-01686-9

Did COVID-19 enlarge spatial disparities in population dynamics? A comparative, multivariate approach for Italy

Qual Quant. 2023 Jun 2:1-30. doi: 10.1007/s11135-023-01686-9. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Leonardo Salvatore Alaimo¹, Bogdana Nosova², Luca Salvati³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Social Sciences and Economics, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
² Department of Social Communications, Institute of Giornalism, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine.
³ Department of Methods and Models for Economics, Territory and Finance, Faculty of Economics, Sapienza University of Rome, Via del Castro Laurenziano 9, 00161 Rome, Italy.

Abstract

A short-term issue that has been occasionally investigated in the current literature is if (and, eventually, how) population dynamics (directly or indirectly) driven by COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to enlarge regional divides in specific demographic processes and dimensions. To verify this assumption, our study run an exploratory multivariate analysis of ten indicators representative of different demographic phenomena (fertility, mortality, nuptiality, internal and international migration) and the related population outcomes (natural balance, migration balance, total growth). We developed a descriptive analysis of the statistical distribution of the ten demographic indicators using eight metrics that assess formation (and consolidation) of spatial divides, controlling for shifts over time in both central tendency, dispersion, and distributional shape regimes. All indicators were made available over 20 years (2002-2021) at a relatively detailed spatial scale (107 NUTS-3 provinces) in Italy. COVID-19 pandemic exerted an impact on Italian population because of intrinsic (e.g. a particularly older population age structure compared with other advanced economies) and extrinsic (e.g. the early start of the pandemic spread compared with the neighboring European countries) factors. For such reasons, Italy may represent a sort of 'worst' demographic scenario for other countries affected by COVID-19 and the results of this empirical study can be informative when delineating policy measures (with both economic and social impact) able to mitigate the effect of pandemics on demographic balance and improve the adaptation capacity of local societies to future pandemic's crises.

Keywords: Demographic trends; Multivariate statistics; Short-term impact; Southern Europe.

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