The pensioner from the small Tuscan town of Cecina was the second oldest European man and the sixth oldest in the world. “I thought he was immortal,” his son Romano wrote in a post on his social media on Monday.
Born in Cecina on August 20, 1912, Giannini ran a fruit and vegetable shop and always proudly spoke of being a man of the people who had lived through the great historical events of the 20th century, including two world wars, the election of several popes, the abolition of the monarchy and the beginning of the Republic in Italy. He enjoyed good health until the end and boasted of having survived epidemics, from the Spanish flu that ravaged Italy when he was a child to the coronavirus.
Despite the corona pandemic, the number of people aged at least centenarians in the country rose to 20,000 in 2022, almost twice as many as in 2009. 83 percent of them are women. Scientists are conducting research to discover the secret of longevity. According to experts, the number of people who have lived at least a century in Italy will continue to grow. The focus is primarily on the condition of those who reached old age in good health. A low-calorie diet, a close network of social relationships and plenty of exercise are factors that contribute to longevity.
The village of Perdasdefogu on the island of Sardinia has been entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the municipality on earth with the highest proportion of centenarians compared to population. Of the total 1,778 residents, eight native and resident citizens are 100 years old or older. That’s more than four centenarians per thousand inhabitants.
Despite – or perhaps because of – its long-lived population, Italy has demographic problems. The sharp decline in birth rates in recent years is causing problems for Austria’s southern neighbor. If the development is not offset by structural measures, the country will have five million fewer inhabitants in 2050 than today, the statistics office Istat warned in its latest report. Only slightly more than one in two people would then be of working age. Italy currently has 59 million inhabitants.
