ROMA (ITALPRESS) – In 2024 natives living in Italy are 369.944, almost 10 thousand less than 2023. The relative change over the previous year (-2.6%) is in line with the average annual percentage change recorded from 2008 to 2023 (-2.7%).
The birth rate in 2024 was 6.3 per thousand residents (it was 9.7 per thousand in 2008). It is read in the report published by Istat. The decreasing trend of the births continues without stops since 2008, year in which the maximum number of live births of the 2000s was recorded (over 576 thousand). Since then the overall loss has been almost 207 thousand births (-35.8%).
The decline of births, in addition to depend on the low propensity to have children (1,18 children on average for women in 2024), is caused by the reduction in the number of potential parents, belonging to the increasingly demanding generations born from the middle of the Seventies, when fertility began to decrease, descending from over 2 children on average for women to the value of 1,19 of 1995.
In 2024 the first sons and daughters of order continue to decline after the first. The firstborn are 181.487 units, down 2.7% compared to 2023. Second children (133.869) decrease by 2.9% while the following ones by 1.5%. The decrease of the first children concerns all areas of the country, with a lower reduction in the Center-North (-1.8% for the North, -2,0% for Center) and a more intense decrease in the Mezzogiorno (-4.3%). The decrease in order children following the first affects the Mezzogiorno to a greater extent: -4.3% versus -1.7 of the Centre and -1.4% of the North (-2.5% the average Italy).
They persist, therefore, the difficulties to have the first child as well as to pass from the first to the second. The factors that contribute to the birth rate are multiple: the extension of training times, the precarious conditions of youth work and the difficulty of accessing the housing market, which tend to postpone the exit from the family core of origin, to which you can support the choice of renouncing parenthood or postpone it.
The decrease in births is almost entirely attributable to the decline of births from both Italian parents, which constitute over three quarters of total births (78.2%). In fact, in the face of a total decrease of the births of 9,946 units, the born from Italian parents, pairs to 289,183 in 2024, are diminished of 9,765 units regarding 2023 (-3,3%). Births from couples in which at least one of the parents is foreign are instead 80.761 (21.8%), substantially stable compared to 2023, when they were 80.942 (-0.2%). Among these, the decrease recorded on parents both foreigners, equal to -1.7%, is compensated by the increase of births in mixed couple (+2.3%).
-Photo IPA Agency-
(ITALPRESS).
