According to Istat [the Italian National Statistics Office] the population of Italy was 59. 131. 257 at the end of 2006, an increase of 379.576. Most of this increase is due to immigration, as is the increase in the birthrate from 1.35 per woman in 2006 to 2.41 now. Most of the children are being born to immigrant women. The relatively new trend of internal immigration which I mentioned before continues, with immigrant workers moving from the south to the north to find jobs, just as southern Italians did half a century ago. I wonder what the social consequences of such movement will be? It is hard enough to emigrate once, without having to uproot yourself all over again. And I am wondering whether all these would-be employees have the skills needed for the jobs in the service and manufacturing sectors that they seek.
[I've used Italian punctuation in expressing the high numerals. Does anybody know what the notation should be in English? I would use a comma after the thousands, as in 379, 576 but I get muddled with millions. The Times Style Guide says "write million as a word" but then I'd have to put words for the numbers which follow it and that seems long-winded. - Ever the pedant!]
9 comments:
Hm, I should guess the dots are correct. And you do not need the spaces. Thus, f.e. 1.360.872
And now let's wait for the one knowing it better. :)
I would write 59,131,257 - just like the Italian only in commas!
I thought I'd asked somewhere - but now I can't remember which post it was I asked in! - do you have beaches in Sicily and where would be the best place for a tourist?
Thanks, Sean. That makes me feel better! Liz, my instinct would have been to have done that. Yes, you did and I replied. I think it's on one of the paintings posts. But anyway, we have the most wonderful, clean, unpolluted beaches here. Well, this area is good: you have Agrigento and Siracusa a couple of hours away and many other fascinating small towns in between. On one of my painting posts I've put a link to Sampieri, a seaside town, so you may like to look at that. For this side of the island, you need to fly to Catania, not Palermo. Here is my email if you want to ask more not via comments: patrizia.mary@alice.it
Sounds like Sicily is becoming like California with our mass immigrations from Mexico. We seem to get the poorest of the poor and most are on welfare. Congress just vetoed making them citizens, all 20 million of them, due to faxes and phone calls to local governments and Senators. Although we have laws in place the government here does not follow them and many US citizens are up in arms over that one. My ancestors had to follow the rules or get deported why should it be any different for someone from Mexico. Ok,I'm off my soapbox.....for now.
Well, I would think commas would be used...
With commas is the best way in written form, until you get to the millions and then the style guide is right. Unless there are digits 1 and above in it, e.g. 406,600,001. In typed form there shouldn't be gaps.
All those people in such a tiny country, well in comparison to Canada. What always amazes me is that there is still lots of open countryside.
The face of Italy is changing now with immigration, especially with the extra-communitarii, as they are euphemistically called. Quite the shock to the Italians
59.1m and 0.3m are easier notations. That's interesting. I expect the figure's similar in the UK ie that the birth rate's higher amongst immigrants. Chirac, of course, had a long-term policy to make the French population the highest in Europe by (I think) 2020 and was giving tax incentives to encourage large families. China has the opposite problem. Its one child per family policy has been in place for years, fining families who flout it, although there was an article this week saying that officials there are flouting it as they can afford to pay the fines. There you are: some people are more equal than others.
Hi, pink, It's the clandestini that overwhem the authorities and the system. I feel sorry for them and try to imagine their desperation but what is the answer? No country can take in everybody who wants to come. The only answer, it seems to me, is to take action on world poverty but that will take so long. I can see your point about your ancestors. Thanks, Lee, That was my instinct. Your lordship, I knew I could rely on you! Thanks. Jmb, yes, it is quite incredible that there is still so much open countryside, especially here. It was the first thing my British students noticed when I brought them over. In this area you don't see many extra-comunitari but you do in Ragusa and larger cities. Interesting comment, WW. Some people are always more equal than others, aren't they? I remember teaching some Chinese students in Britain and they explained to me some of the penalties for having more than one child - no free education, for instance - and how people get around them. Plus ca change..
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