According to preliminary statistics, births in Italy are on track to set a new record low this year, exacerbating the country’s long-standing demographic issue
ITALY, Oct 27 (Telegraph News) — Between January and June, there were 3,500 fewer births than in the same period of 2022, according to the data from the national statistics bureau ISTAT.
Births declined 1.7% to 393,000 in 2022, the 14th consecutive drop and the lowest amount since the country’s union in 1861.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni this month earmarked around 1 billion euros ($1.05 billion) for measures aimed at addressing the crisis, driven in part by Italian women’s struggles to combine work and motherhood and considered a national emergency for the euro zone’s third-largest economy.
A shrinking and aging population leads to falling productivity and higher welfare costs in a country that already has the highest state pension bill in the 38-nation Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). /Reuters
