The birth of a baby in the small town of Acquaviva Platani, in inland Sicily, is such a rare event that the village bells toll to celebrate the arrival.

With just 800 inhabitants Acquaviva is among thousands of Italian towns risking extinction in the coming decades, as the country faces an unprecedented crisis of population decline.

For the first time in 90 years the number of Italian citizens living in Italy has fallen to about 55 million, according to the national statistics agency (ISTAT). From 2014 to 2018, the number of Italian citizens resident in the country decreased by 677,000.

Two factors are behind the decline according to experts: a decrease in births, which is at an all-time low since the unification of Italy, and an increase in the emigration of young people to other European countries in search of job opportunities. According to ISTAT nearly 157,000 people left the country in 2018.

UN reports that Italy is the only major European economy with a population set to decline further in the next five years. It ranks second – behind only Japan – in terms of having the greatest share of older people, with an estimated 168.7 people over 65 for every 100 young people.

Most people living in Acquaviva are more than 60 years old, and the number of deaths fluctuates between 20 and 30 each year. As for the bells announcing the birth of a child, they only ring once or, at the most, three times a year.

Giuseppe Li Pani 81, enjoys playing cards in Acquaviva Platani’s Piazza Plado Mosca. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

“What can you do about it? That’s life!” said Giuseppe Li Pani, 81, while playing cards with his friends at the bar in Piazza Plado Mosca under the scorching afternoon sun. “Young people leave and those who remain decide not to have children. How can you blame them? There are no job opportunities here. How can they look after a child?”

Economists warn that Italy’s shrinking population could drag the country into a deep economic crisis, setting off a vicious circle: the economic crisis exacerbates the population decline, which in turn leads to more economic turmoil.

Acquaviva has hit a dead end. In the 1950s this town had almost 3,700 inhabitants. Some worked in the countryside, while the rest were employed in the salt mines of the province of Caltanissetta, including Li Pani, who at the age of 18 was driving tractors carrying material extracted from the mines.

“It was hard work,” says Li Pani. “We went almost 150 metres deep. We returned home destroyed but with a smile on our faces. There was no lack of work. Within a few years things changed for the worse.”

As in other rural areas of Sicily the decline began with the industrialisation of the agricultural sector. The salt mines were also closed, replaced by the production of sea salt, which was much easier to obtain and less expensive.

People began to emigrate to the factories of England, Belgium, France and Germany. And Acquaviva slowly began to empty.

“I went to Sheffield,” says Antonio Piletto, 81, who served the Queen Mother as a waiter in the 1960s. “In the summer I always go back to Acquaviva. And it is sad to see my village slowly emptying every year.”

Salvatore Caruso, the mayor of Acquaviva., said: “Many of the people here live off their pensions. The primary school has just two classes. One of the few activities that allows the recruitment of young people in the town is a home for the elderly. Unfortunately, the fate of Acquaviva is no different from that of other towns in Italy.”

The mayor of Acquaviva Platani, Salvatore Caruso, says the fate of his town reflects the reality of other Italian towns. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

In nearby Campofranco, a hill town on the road from Agrigento to Palermo, nearly 400 people have emigrated in search of work in the last five years. The current population stands at 2,850 people.

“We do everything to resist the inexorable demographic decline,” said Rosario Pitanza, the mayor of Campofranco. “But unfortunately, with the passage of time, commercial activities are decreasing and factories are closing.”

In an attempt to resuscitate the towns several mayors have adopted a strategy that has become fashionable in the south: sell, or practically give away, abandoned homes to anyone willing to move in. The symbolic price of a house: one euro.

Other towns, like Sutera, in the province of Caltanissetta, have instead opened the doors of their vacant houses to asylum seekers who have crossed the Mediterranean from Libya.

An aerial view of Campofranco. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

All but a few hundred people had moved out of Sutera to find work in other European countries, leaving behind empty houses. Now there is a chance to repopulate the town with migrants.

“Opening the doors to migration could be the only solution for the survival of towns at risk of extinction,” said Francesco Giavazzi, professor of economics at Bocconi University, in Milan. “If you look at the history of the US and France you will see that migration is the solution to fight the decline in population.”

The great hope of these endangered villages also lies in the few young people left, such as Vincenzo Li Grigoli, 31, owner of a bar in Acquaviva, and his wife, Alessia, who is six months pregnant.

“The truth that few want to admit is that Acquaviva’s days are numbered. Within 30 years this town could disappear,” said Li Pani. Then, looking at Ms Li Grigoli, he added: “But, in the meantime, as our extinction is approaching, the bells will ring again in October.”

• This article was amended on 6 August 2019 to clarify that the number of Italian citizens living in Italy has dropped to 55 million, rather than the total population.