Italy is facing what has been called an “irreversible” problem, with hundreds of towns and villages experiencing no births.
Zero births were registered in 358 villages and towns in 2023 – compared to 328 five years previously – according to Istat, the country’s national statistics institute.
Many small and isolated communities, often located in the Apennines and the Alps, have ageing populations and no couples of childbearing age leading to the closure of schools, clinics and post offices.
That, in turn, persuades more people to leave, either moving to the cities or emigrating from Italy altogether.
“It’s a vicious cycle,” said Alessandro Rosina, an expert in demographics at the Catholic University of Milan. “The population falls, services are cut, and young people move elsewhere.”
Rosina said this demographic decline has been happening for a decade, with the country entering “a new phase of inexorable population decline” in 2014.
“It is interior regions that are most affected – communities that are difficult to reach, where it is hard to access health services and schools,” Mr Rosina said, adding that the situation was “irreversible”.
Some villages are down to just a few dozen people. If a baby is born against the odds, it is a huge celebration and often makes headlines.
In December 2023, there was rejoicing in Morterone, Italy’s smallest village, for the birth of a baby girl called Marta. She boosted the population of the village to 33.
Not only are young people not having children, they are aiming to leave Italy altogether. More than a third of teenagers dream of emigrating to the US, Spain and the UK.
Many live at home into their twenties and thirties, saying they cannot afford to move out and have children. Italy is the only developed country where real wages have declined in the last 30 years.
In March last year, Istat reported that in 2023, the number of births in Italy fell to 379,000 – a record low.
It is forecast that by 2050, the country’s population of 58 million will have dropped by five million. More than a third of them will be over the age of 65, leading to workforce shortages and difficulties in welfare funding.
