Italy’s birth rate crisis is ‘irreversible’

Hundreds of Italian towns and villages recorded no births in 2023, deepening a population decline that threatens the country’s future.

According to Istat, Italy’s national statistics institute, 358 towns and villages saw zero births last year, up from 328 five years ago.

While birth rates in Italy have been dropping for years, the issue is particularly severe in small, often remote communities where aging populations leave few couples of childbearing age.

Many of these villages are scattered across the Apennines, the rugged mountain range running down Italy’s spine, and the Alps in the north.

As populations shrink, essential services such as schools, clinics, and post offices shut down, pushing even more residents to leave—either for cities or to emigrate.

“It’s a vicious cycle,” said Alessandro Rosina, a demographics expert at Milan’s Catholic University. “When the population declines, services disappear, and young people move away.”

Italy’s demographic crisis has been evident for at least a decade. “Since 2014, the country has entered an irreversible phase of population decline,” Rosina told La Repubblica.

The impact is most severe in rural areas.

“The hardest-hit regions are inland communities that are difficult to reach and where access to healthcare and schools is limited,” Rosina said, calling the trend “irreversible.”

In some villages, the situation has become so extreme that only welfare assistance remains.

A birth in these remote areas is now a rare and celebrated event.

In December 2023, the birth of a baby girl named Marta in Morterone—a tiny mountain village in Lombardy—made national headlines. Her arrival raised the village’s population to just 33 residents.

But Italy’s crisis is not just about declining birth rates. Many young Italians want to leave the country entirely.

More than a third of Italy’s teenagers dream of emigrating once they are old enough, with top destinations including the U.S. (32%), Spain (12%), and the U.K. (11%), according to Istat.

In March 2023, Istat reported that births in Italy had fallen to just 379,000—a record low.

Italy now has one of the world’s oldest populations, as well as one of the fastest rates of demographic decline.