The demographic crisis of Italy deepened in 2024, when the number of births reached a new record of low, emigration accelerated and the population continued to decrease, said the National Istat Statistics Office on Monday (30).
The constant falling rate of Italy is considered a national emergency. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her predecessors promised to make her a priority in the government, but have not yet managed to stop the fall.
There were about 281,000 more deaths than births in 2024 and the population fell by 37,000 to 58.93 million, continuing a trend from a decade.
Since 2014, the population of Italy has shrunk in almost 1.9 million people, more than the inhabitants of Milan, their second largest city, or from the Calabria region, in the south of the country.
The 370,000 babies born in 2024 marked the 16th consecutive annual decline and was the smallest since the country’s unification in 1861.
It was a 2.6% drop compared to 2023, Istat said, and 35.8% lower than in 2008 – the last year italy saw an increase in the number of born babies.
The fertility rate, measuring the average number of children born to each woman of childbearing age, also fell to a low record of 1.18, well below the 2.1 needed for a stable population.
The previous record of low fertility rate was 1.19 children per woman registered in 1995.
The 651,000 deaths recorded in 2024 were the lowest since 2019, bringing the number back to the levels prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The average life expectancy jumped to 83.4 years, almost five months longer than in 2023.
The 191,000 Italians who moved abroad last year were officially the largest number of this century, increasing more than 20% over the previous year, although Istat said that a regulatory change was probably a key factor in the data.
A new law introduced last year imposed fines on the Italians who lived abroad and who did not formally registered as expatriates in their new country of residence.
Foreigners accounted for 9.2% of the country’s population in 2024, to a total of 5.4 million, an increase of 3.2% year by year, with most living in the north of the country.
Highlighting the rapid aging of the population of Italy, Istat stated that almost one in four residents was over 65 years old, while the number of centenaries reached a new record of 23,500.
This content was originally published in Italy’s demographic crisis worsening after births reaching low record on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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