Chelli added that approximately a third of them, 352,000, were aged between 25 and 34.

The head of the national statistics agency also said that 132,000 of these young emigrants, or 37.7 per cent of them, were university graduates.

“The number of young people of the same age group to return to Italy was around 104,000, including over 45,000 graduates,” Chelli said.

Chelli was reporting to the parliamentary commission of inquiry on the economic and social effects of Italy’s ‘demographic transition’.

“The difference between repatriations and expatriations of young graduates is consistently negative, with a net loss of 87,000 young graduates in this period,” he said.

“In 2022 alone, there was a deficit of 12,000 individuals.

“In that year, the young graduates who emigrated mostly went to Germany (3000) and the United Kingdom (2600).”

ANSA