interviews by Nina Vaclavikova
Italy recorded its lowest number of births since World War II in 2025, with about 355,000 children born as the country’s fertility rate fell to 1.14 children per woman, according to a report presented this week.
The number of births declined from roughly 369,000 in 2024, when the fertility rate was 1.18. The report was produced by the Fondazione per la Natalità in collaboration with Italy’s national statistics agency, ISTAT, and presented Tuesday at an event attended by Gigi De Palo, president of the foundation; Francesco Maria Chelli, president of ISTAT; and Valeria Vittimberga, director general of the national social security agency, INPS.
The figures add to a long-running demographic challenge for Italy, where deaths continue to substantially outnumber births and the population is becoming increasingly old.
In 2025, Italy recorded about 652,000 deaths, producing a negative natural population balance of approximately 297,000 people.
“At this rate, with the growing elderly population, by 2050, for every 100 young people up to the age of 14, there will be approximately 300 over-65s,” Mr. Chelli said during the presentation.
Italy has one of the world’s highest life expectancies, at 83.4 years, but the combination of longer lives and fewer births is putting increasing pressure on the country’s pension, health care and welfare systems.
Mr. Chelli said Italy’s fertility decline had its roots in the 1970s and had continued for decades. The current rate of 1.14 children per woman is well below the 2.1 considered necessary to maintain a stable population in the absence of migration.
The report also challenges the idea that the decline is primarily the result of Italians losing interest in having children.
Only 5.5 percent of people without children said parenthood was not part of their plans. Among people who said they would not have additional children, 62.2 percent cited economic, professional or social obstacles as reasons for abandoning those plans.
More than 2.8 million Italians identified economic or employment difficulties as the main reason they had decided against having children, according to the study.
The difference between desired and actual family size is particularly striking. If Italian women’s stated fertility intentions had been realized, about 760,000 children would have been born in 2025, more than twice the actual number.
Employment and career concerns appear to play a significant role, particularly for women. Nearly half of women surveyed said they feared negative consequences for their careers if they became mothers. More than 3 million women are currently outside the labor force for family-related reasons, compared with about 151,000 men.
Mr. De Palo said the findings contradicted the notion that Italians simply did not want children. Instead, he argued, many people were unable to realize their plans because of the conditions surrounding parenthood.
The report describes a combination of factors, including insecure employment, limited incomes, difficulty accessing housing and insufficient family services. For women, the potential professional consequences of motherhood add another barrier.
Ms. Vittimberga of INPS said poverty itself was not necessarily the central issue. Rather, she pointed to “job insecurity, insufficient income, difficulty in accessing housing, lack of services, and the professional disadvantage of mothers” as factors that can make having children more difficult.
Italy’s demographic decline has become an increasingly important political and economic issue as the country seeks to sustain its workforce and finance pensions and public services with a shrinking share of working-age residents.
The latest figures suggest that the gap between Italians’ aspirations and their ability to act on them remains substantial. The challenge for policymakers, the report argues, is not simply to persuade Italians to have more children, but to make parenthood more compatible with economic security, employment and family life.
