The number of babies being born in Italy has plummeted to the lowest level since the modern Italian state was formed in 1861.
This prompted the health minister to say that Italy is “a dying country”.
The country’s national statistics office said live births last year were 509,000. This is 5,000 fewer than in 2013.
The figure includes babies of native Italians as well as foreigners in the country. Because of the persistent problems of the financial crisis, fewer immigrants are entering the country
“We are very close to the threshold of non-renewal where the people dying are not replaced by new-borns. That means we are a dying country,” Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin said.
“This situation has enormous implications for every sector: the economy, society, health, pensions, just to give a few examples,” she added.
At the same time, Italian life expectancy rose to 80.2 years for men and 84.9 for women.
Increases in longevity, and attendant costs such as pensions and health care, coupled with lower birth rates pose a severe challenge to many parts of Europe.
While Italy is alarmed, its birth rate is recorded at 1.4 by the Population Reference Bureau. The rates for Portugal and Spain are lower still, namely 1.2 while Greece is barely ahead with 1.3.
Despite this, all these countries have extremely high youth unemployment.
These are among the lowest in the entire world. China has the very lowest rate (1.1) but still has billions of citizens to maintain the country.
