Italy’s falling birth rate, a national emergency, continues despite government promises to tackle the problem, The Independent reports.
According to the national statistics bureau ISTAT, Italy’s demographic decline will worsen in 2024, with birth rates hitting record lows, emigration increasing and the population continuing to shrink.
In 2024, the gap between deaths and births widened: 281,000 more people died than were born. This led to a 37,000 decrease in population, bringing the total population down to 58.93 million. This continues the downward trend seen over the last decade. Since 2014, Italy’s population has fallen by almost 1.9 million people, equivalent to the population of Milan or the entire Calabria region.
The number of births in 2024, just 370,000, represents the 16th consecutive year of population decline and the lowest since the unification of Italy in 1861. This continuous decline emphasises the severity of the demographic crisis facing the country.
According to ISTAT, the rate is down 2.6 per cent from 2023 and 35.8 per cent from 2008, the last year when Italy saw an increase in the number of children born.
The fertility rate, which measures the average number of children born to each woman of childbearing age, also fell to a record low of 1.18, well below the 2.1 needed for a stable population. The previous record low for the fertility rate was 1.19 children per woman, recorded in 1995.
The 651,000 deaths recorded in 2024 were the lowest since 2019, bringing the rate back to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. Life expectancy jumped to 83.4 years, almost five months longer than in 2023.
The number of Italians who moved abroad last year totalled 191,000, officially the highest this century, up more than 20 per cent on the previous year, although ISTAT said a key factor in the figures was likely to have been a change in legislation.
A new law introduced last year penalised Italians living abroad who failed to officially register as expatriates in their new country of residence.
Foreigners made up 9.2 per cent of the country’s population in 2024, totalling 5.4 million people, up 3.2 per cent from last year, with most of them living in the north of the country.
Highlighting Italy’s rapidly ageing population, ISTAT reports that almost one in four of Italy’s residents is over 65 years old, and the number of centenarians has reached a new high of 23,500.
