Italy sees drop in birth rate

The Italian population has decreased by almost 33,000 people, and the average age in the country has risen to 46.4 years, according to the 2022 census of the National Institute of Statistics (Istat).

The results are concerning in terms of fertility with barely one child being born per woman while women represent 51.2% of the population. In 2022, there were just under 400,000 births.

Additionally, there are more and more elderly people: for every 100 young people, there are 184 elderly people, and there are 22,000 Italians over 100 years old, a record.

The decline in the population remains contained due to migration into the country with an increase of +2.2% compared to 2021, accounting for 8.7% of the population.

As for the distribution of the population, small municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants, accounting for 70% of municipalities are getting smaller with 60% registering a decrease. Some 2,936 municipalities saw an increase and account for almost half of the country’s population.

Other data shows that Italy is home to the second oldest citizens in the world, and has an average life expectancy of 80.5 for men and 84.8 for women.

(Federica Pascale | Euractiv.it)

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