Hundreds of Venetians rallied last Saturday to draw attention to the city’s shrinking population and to their fear that the exodus is accelerating the danger of Venice becoming an imitation of itself, rather than a living city.
They dressed in costumes from the city’s golden days, they carried Farewell to Venice signs, and signs that declared they will never leave. But the reality is that Venice is losing more than a thousand residents each year and little progress has been made on creating non-tourism industry jobs.
Venice, like a number of other popular destinations, has had issues with being overwhelmed by tourism, but unlike Paris or Barcelona, Venice doesn’t have a growing population to keep pace.
In fact, Venice has lost nearly half its population over the past 40 years, partly because of declining job opportunities, costs compared to other areas that attract young people, and aging. Today, the under-55,000 population is less than the estimated average 60,000 visitors a day. And that 60,000 is an average that masks the size of summer crowds.
