Italy Faces Further Drop in Births Amid Record-Low Fertility, National Statistics Bureau Says

Longer education paths, unstable employment, and housing challenges are keeping many Italians from starting families.

Published: 10/21/2025, 2:18:47 PM EDT

Italy Faces Further Drop in Births Amid Record-Low Fertility, National Statistics Bureau Says — People pick their children up from the nursery in Cisternino, Italy, on Feb. 13, 2025. (Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters)

Italy will see a further drop in the number of births this year, following a decline in 2024 and all-time low fertility levels, the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) stated on Oct. 21.

ISTAT reported 369,944 births in 2024, down by nearly 10,000, or 2.6 percent, from the previous year.

The agency said the drop continued a downward trend that began in 2008, when more than 576,000 babies were born. Last year, the average number of children per woman in Italy fell to 1.18, down from 1.2 in 2023, marking the lowest rate ever recorded in the country.

Provisional data for 2025 suggest an even lower figure of 1.13 children per woman, well below the population replacement level in developed countries of 2.1.

“Births are falling and fertility is at an all-time low,” ISTAT said in a statement.

In April 2024, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the declining birth rate as a “challenge” not only for Italy but for Europe as a whole.

The European Union’s statistical office, Eurostat, puts the EU average at 1.38 in 2023, with Bulgaria, France, and Hungary at the higher end, and Malta, Spain, and Lithuania recording the lowest rates.

According to Eurostat, women across Europe are having fewer children and giving birth later. In 2023, women in the EU had their first child at an average age of 29.8 years. Italy recorded the highest mean age for first births at 31.8 years, followed closely by Ireland at 31.6.

Reasons for Decline

ISTAT said the decline in Italy reflects not only a lower propensity to have children but also the shrinking number of women of childbearing age, the result of smaller generations born since the mid-1970s.

Fertility in Italy fell from more than two children per woman in the 1970s to 1.19 in the mid-1990s and has never recovered. Since 2008, Italy has lost about 207,000 births, or 35.8 percent.

Several factors contribute to the decline, including longer education, precarious jobs, and housing difficulties that delay young people from leaving home.

“This can be accompanied by the choice to forgo parenthood or postpone it,” ISTAT said.

The agency said births of both first and subsequent children declined. First-borns totaled 181,487, a 2.7 percent drop from 2023, while second-borns fell 2.9 percent and later-borns 1.5 percent. The decrease was sharpest in southern Italy.

Italy provides a one-time grant of 1,000 euros ($1,160) for each child born or adopted from Jan. 1, 2025, onward. In addition, families can receive a childcare bonus to help cover nursery expenses.

A monthly allowance ranging from 50 to 175 euros ($58 to $203) per child is available for families with dependent children, with extra supplements for mothers under the age of 21 and vouchers for kindergarten attendance.

Origin of Parents

Most of the decline was seen in Italian couples. Births to two Italian parents in 2024 fell 3.3 percent from 2023 and now account for 78 percent of all births.

By contrast, births involving at least one foreign parent remained steady at about 80,700, representing roughly one-fifth of the total.

Among those, mixed couples saw a 2.3 percent increase, while births to two foreign parents fell 1.7 percent. The share of babies born to at least one foreign parent was highest in the north of the country and lowest in the south.

Emilia-Romagna and Liguria had the highest proportions of foreign births, while Sardinia and Abruzzo reported the lowest. The most common nationalities among foreign parents were Romanian, Moroccan, and Albanian, ISTAT said.

Ukrainian parents are the most likely to form mixed couples, with 52.9 percent of babies born to one Italian and one Ukrainian parent, typically a Ukrainian mother and an Italian father.

Among mixed couples where the foreign parent is the father, the highest share is recorded for Tunisian fathers, who account for 17.1 percent of such births.

From The Epoch Times