ISTAT provisional data for 2025 show 355,000 births against 652,000 deaths, a net natural loss of nearly 300,000; only net immigration of comparable scale prevented further total population decline for a third year
Italy's national statistics institute ISTAT confirmed 369,944 babies born in Italy in 2024, a 2.6% decline from 2023 and the lowest annual birth total since Italian unification in 1861; the total fertility rate fell to a record-low 1.18 children per woman, 281,000 more deaths than births shrank the population by 37,000 to 58.93 million, and preliminary January-July 2025 data show a further 6.3% decline in newborns