Italy’s demographic crisis worsens as births hit record low

Italy’s demographic issues worsened in 2024, with births reaching an all-time low, emigration increasing, and the population continuing to decline, according to the national statistics office ISTAT on Monday. Italy’s continuously declining birth rate is deemed a national crisis, yet despite the commitments of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her predecessors to prioritize it, none have managed to stop the decline to date.

In 2024, there were approximately 281,000 more fatalities than births, resulting in a population decrease of 37,000 to 58.93 million, which continues a trend lasting a decade. Since 2014, Italy’s population has declined by nearly 1.9 million, surpassing the number of residents in Milan, the nation’s second-largest city, or in the Calabria region located in the southern part of the country.

The 370,000 infants delivered in 2024 represented the 16th straight yearly decrease and was the least number since the nation’s unification in 1861. According to ISTAT, it decreased by 2.6% compared to 2023, and is 35.8% below the figures from 2008, the last year Italy experienced a rise in births.

The fertility rate, which indicates the average number of children born to each woman of reproductive age, declined to a historic low of 1.18, significantly lower than the 2.1 required for a stable population. The earlier lowest fertility rate was 1.19 children per woman, which was noted in 1995.

The 651,000 fatalities recorded in 2024 were the least since 2019, aligning the figure with pre-pandemic levels before COVID-19. Average life expectancy rose to 83.4 years, an increase of nearly five months from 2023.

The 191,000 Italians that relocated overseas last year marked the highest figure this century, showing a surge of over 20% compared to the previous year, although ISTAT mentioned that a regulatory change likely played a significant role in the statistics.