Italy's birth rate drops, population down by 86,000

Source: Xinhua   2017-03-07 01:33:25

ROME, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Italy's total population shrank again in 2016, and the national birth rate sank to a record low, according to data released on Monday.

The country's population stood at 60.57 million on Jan. 1, 2017, marking a decrease of 86,000 compared to the previous year, the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) said.

"The number of births (in 2016) confirmed a downward trend: the minimum level of births in 2015 -- amounting to 486,000 -- was exceeded in 2016 with 474,000," the agency stated in a report.

The country's total birth rate last year was 1.34 children per woman from 1.35 in 2015, which marked the sixth consecutive year of decline.

The further decrease was more due to a drop in the number of women of childbearing age among Italians, and to the aging of female population among immigrants, than to a real reduction in the propensity to have children, according to ISTAT.

Italy had already recorded the lowest birth rate in the European Union (EU) in 2015, with eight babies per thousand inhabitants, which at the time had marked the lowest level since the country was founded in 1861.

Non-nationals remained the portion of Italian society in which the birth rate was more stable, data showed. The rate of childbirth among women of immigrant origins was in fact 1.95 children per woman in 2016, slightly up from 1.94 in the previous year.

Editor: Mu Xuequan
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Italy's birth rate drops, population down by 86,000

Source: Xinhua 2017-03-07 01:33:25

ROME, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Italy's total population shrank again in 2016, and the national birth rate sank to a record low, according to data released on Monday.

The country's population stood at 60.57 million on Jan. 1, 2017, marking a decrease of 86,000 compared to the previous year, the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) said.

"The number of births (in 2016) confirmed a downward trend: the minimum level of births in 2015 -- amounting to 486,000 -- was exceeded in 2016 with 474,000," the agency stated in a report.

The country's total birth rate last year was 1.34 children per woman from 1.35 in 2015, which marked the sixth consecutive year of decline.

The further decrease was more due to a drop in the number of women of childbearing age among Italians, and to the aging of female population among immigrants, than to a real reduction in the propensity to have children, according to ISTAT.

Italy had already recorded the lowest birth rate in the European Union (EU) in 2015, with eight babies per thousand inhabitants, which at the time had marked the lowest level since the country was founded in 1861.

Non-nationals remained the portion of Italian society in which the birth rate was more stable, data showed. The rate of childbirth among women of immigrant origins was in fact 1.95 children per woman in 2016, slightly up from 1.94 in the previous year.

[Editor: huaxia]
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