The urban-rural distinction in the analysis of the depopulation of inner areas - The “Sicani area” in south Sicily

Italy's negative demographic balance worsened following the 2008 recession, with a discernible migration flow from the southern to the northern regions. Sicily is a representative case in this regard, but it also exhibits significant internal variation on a local and regional level that is scarcely covered in the currently accessible literature. Furthermore, most of the current analyses on depopulation in Italy are conducted at the regional or municipal level, producing intersections with other variables such as the degree of rurality, which, either using the Degurba-Eurostat typology or the Italian Rural Development Plan (PSR) one, show significant association between rurality and depopulation. This contribution seeks to complement the available analyses on depopulation by addressing the increasing urban-rural contradiction, by incorporating intra-communal demographic data to distinguish between demographic variation in small inhabited centres and in sparsely populated or uninhabited areas. The comparison will be drawn from census data from the 2011 and 2021 series. Specifically, data will be analysed for the inner area “Sicani” in the south of Sicily, part of the SNAI, which has decreased its population by 19% between 2001 and 2021.