With a birth rate higher than that of Corsica and a relatively high proportion of working people, the Balagne shows an unquestionable vitality. Today, within a dominating commercial tertiary sector and creator of employment, it is tourism which drives/leads the economy in this region. At the 1990 census, the Balagne had 16600 inhabitants unequally divided over the 36 districts which make it up. Calvi and L’Ile Rousse, which respectively shelter 29% and 14% of the balanine population, are the two principal cities. They are surrounded by coastal plains and large villages looking out over the sea at roughly 400 meters altitude. This heart of the Balagne is relatively well populated. Its towns frequently show a density of population superior to 50 inhabitants by square km, whereas the average in Corsica is 29. But when we take a look at the interior of the island, the districts have only a very sparse population.

The Balagne has an elderly population: more than a quarter of the inhabitants is at least sixty years old, against 23% in Corsica and 20% in continental France. However, certain tendencies moderate this demographic pessimism, and it seems that the Balagne, in the future, will not have such a high proportion of elderly inhabitants.

Between 1982 and 1990, the growth of the balanine population remained higher than that of the island in general. This increase was maintained by an external contribution since, over this period, the number of newcomers exceeded that of 1200 people leaving.

During these same years, the variation due to the natural movement of population was negative, the number of deaths exceeding that of births. Between 1990 and 1993, the difference was reversed with 867 births for 812 deaths. Moreover, these four last years, the number of the new-born babies was stabilized at an honourable level in the region, whereas the tendency is to fall, in Corsica as well as at a national level.

If the birth rate is maintained, it is that the fertility of the women of the Balagne is relatively high: in 1993, one estimates the rate at 63 births for a thousand women at an age to have children, whereas it is 47 in Corsica and 50 in Metropolitan France.

This phenomenon can be explained by the arrival in recent Corsica of young foreign people, of which a large number are of North African origin. As elsewhere in Corsica, they came to be with their husbands at the end of the Eighties. They contribute therefore to the rejuvenation of the female population, and to the increase in the number of potential mothers. The family reunions often led to births, but on an equal age basis the difference is rather weak between the fertility of foreigners and that of the Frenchwomen: the criterion of the age, therefore, seems to exceed that of nationality. On top of this, the presence of the foreign Legion in Calvi also favours the birth-rate, as marriages between men of the regiments and women of the region are rather frequent.

This relative demographic dynamism seems to extend towards the economy. Indeed, the proportion of active people ageing from 20 to 60 years is higher in Balagne than in the whole of Corsica. In this age bracket, the activity ratio of men (89%) is higher than the regional rate and that of women (53%) is hardly lower. This higher male activity does not bring about a higher rate of male unemployment: the latter being only 8%, against 11% in the whole area. On the other hand, the unemployment of women is accentuated in the region (26% against 21%).

At the last census, the Balagne offers approximately 6000 jobs, of which practically the totality are held by its residents. But in the area, in seven cases out of ten, more than 1400 people daily leave their district of residence to go to their work, situated in Calvi or I’Ile Rousse.

Therefore in L’Ile Rousse, 40% of employment is occupied by people who do not live in the town and go to work there every day. Many of them used to live there but went to live in one of the neighbouring towns, such as Santa-Reparata-di-Balagne, Monticello or Corbara. According to the last census, it was to the advantage of the neighbouring villages that L’Ile Rousse lost 15% of its population.

The same does not apply to Calvi, which is a place where one lives and works. More than eight out of ten people work and live there. Moreover, this town makes up nearly half of the employment of the Balagne.

Source: ‘Economie corse’ Number 75.