Editing Liguria (section)

==Demographics==
[[File:Cervo Altstadt 20090902.jpg|thumb|left|[[Cervo, Liguria|Cervo]]]]
{{Historical populations
|1861 |829138|1871 |883864|1881 |936476|1901 |1086213|1911 |1207095|1921 |1337979|1931 |1422596|1936 |1466820|1951 |1566961|1961 |1735349|1971 |1853578|1981 |1807893|1991 |1676282|2001 |1571783|2011 |1570694|2021|1509227|source=[[National Institute of Statistics (Italy)|ISTAT]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Popolazione residente e presente dei comuni. Censimenti dal 1861 al 1971|trans-title=Resident and present population of the municipalities. Censuses from 1861 to 1971|url=https://ebiblio.istat.it/digibib/Censimenti%20popolazione/Censimentipopolazioneresidentedal1861/PUV0027177Pop_res_pres_cens_1861_1971_Tomo1.pdf|date=1971-10-24|lang=it|publisher=[[National Institute of Statistics (Italy)|ISTAT]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Dashboard Permanent census of population and housing|url=https://esploradati.censimentopopolazione.istat.it/databrowser/#/en/censtest/dashboards|publisher=[[National Institute of Statistics (Italy)|ISTAT]]}}</ref>}}

The population density of Liguria is much higher than the national average (300 inhabitants per km<sup>2</sup>, or 770 per mi<sup>2</sup>), being only less than [[Campania]]'s, [[Lombardy]]'s and [[Lazio]]'s. In the [[Metropolitan City of Genoa]], it reaches almost 500 inhabitants per km<sup>2</sup>, whereas in the provinces of [[province of imperia|Imperia]] and [[province of savona|Savona]] it is less than 200 inhabitants per km<sup>2</sup>. The Spanish traveller [[Pedro Tafur]], noting it from sea in 1436, remarked "To one who does not know it, the whole coast from Savona to Genoa looks like one continuous city, so well inhabited is it, and so thickly studded with houses,"<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/tafur.html#ch1 |title=Pero Tafur |website=depts.washington.edu}}</ref> and today over 80% of the regional population still lives permanently near to the coast, where all the four major cities above 50,000 are located: [[Genoa]] (pop. 610,000), [[La Spezia]] (pop. 95,000), [[Savona]] (pop. 62,000) and [[Sanremo]] (pop. 56,000).

The population of Liguria has been declining since the census in 1971, most markedly in the cities of Genoa, Savona and La Spezia. The age pyramid now looks more like a 'mushroom' resting on a fragile base.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://circa.europa.eu/irc/dsis/regportraits/info/data/en/itc3_pop.htm |title=Eurostat |publisher=Circa.europa.eu |access-date=5 May 2009 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721132604/http://circa.europa.eu/irc/dsis/regportraits/info/data/en/itc3_pop.htm |archive-date=21 July 2011 }}</ref> The negative trend has been partially interrupted only in the last decade when, after a successful economic recovery, the region has attracted consistent fluxes of immigrants. {{As of|2008}}, the Italian national institute of statistics, ISTAT, estimated that 90,881 foreign-born immigrants live in Liguria, equal to 5.7% of the total regional population.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://demo.istat.it/strasa2008/index.html |title=Statistiche demografiche ISTAT |publisher=Demo.istat.it |access-date=5 May 2009}}</ref>