As the economic conflict and uncertainty brought about by the pandemic exacerbate its demographic crisis, Italy’s birth rate is expected to drop further.
The number of births in Italy in 2019 was 420,000, which is the lowest level since the country’s reunification in 1861, while the total number of deaths was 647,000.
According to the latest estimate from Istat, the National Bureau of Statistics, this year’s birth rate may drop to 408,000, and the death of the coronavirus will bring the total death toll to more than 700,000.
Gian Carlo Blangiardo, president of Istat, said, “It is reasonable to assume that the atmosphere of fear and uncertainty and the increasing material difficulties brought about by recent events will have a negative impact on the fertility decisions of Italian couples.”
In the estimated total death toll by 2020, Blangiardo said: “This is a worrying level because the last time this happened was in 1944, when we were in the second world. In the war.”
