Italy’s births set to sink to a new record low in 2025
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The year 2024 saw just 370,000 new births, the lowest figure since Italy’s unification in 1861, and the 16th year in a row in which the figure declined.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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ROME – Italy is set to suffer a further drop in the number of births this year to a new historical low, aggravating the country’s demographic crisis, its national statistics bureau Istat said on Oct 21.
The year 2024 saw just 370,000 new births, the lowest figure since Italy’s unification in 1861, and the 16th year in a row in which the figure declined.
In the first seven months of 2025, the negative trend continued, with just under 198,000 newborns, down 6.3 per cent from the same period of 2024, Istat said in a statement.
The fertility rate, measuring the average number of children born to each woman of child-bearing age, fell in January to July to 1.13, from 2024’s record low of 1.18, the agency added.
Italy’s long-declining birth rate is considered a national emergency. But despite Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her predecessors’ pledges to confront the issue, no one has been able to halt the drop.
In a separate report on Oct 21, Istat said the steady ageing of the population and the gradual rise in the retirement age will result in a progressively older workforce.
It said that by 2050, the share of people either working or looking for work in the 55 to 64 age group will rise to 70 per cent from 61 per cent in 2024, while in the 65 to 74 age group, it will rise to 16 per cent from 11 per cent. REUTERS
