Birth rate, one in three cradles left empty after Covid. Only 380,000 new births in 2023

In March, Istat will announce a new historic low in the birth rate reached by Italy since Unification. Demographers are certain of this, 2023 will close with a consolidated figure of around 380 thousand new births in the country, a further drop compared to the 393 thousand new births in 2022. Once again, the inexorability of the numbers was the starting point for the debate during the first stage of the Stati Generali della Natalità, a tour that began in Bologna and will end on 10-12 May in Rome. Demographers Alessandro Rosina and Gianluigi Bovini illustrated the data during the first part of the morning's proceedings, which were also attended by the Minister for Family and Birth, Eugenia Maria Roccella, and Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian Episcopal Conference.

Reviewing the statistics, what makes an impression is above all the data from the last few post-pandemic years, during which one in three cradles 'emptied': from 2020 to 2022 we lost one in three newborns (-29.3%) compared to the 2008-2010 three-year period, the last one in which a relatively high birth rate was recorded nationally compared to today. And the decline, Professor Bovini pointed out, has been uniform practically everywhere from North to South, with the sole exception of Trentino Alto Adige (-14.8%), which seems to have held up more than other territories. The drop in births was across the board at the national level: it weighed particularly heavily in Valle d'Aosta (-40.4%) and Sardinia (-40.4%) or in the Marches (-36.2%), exceeding the national average trend also in Lombardy and Latium (-32.9%), but also in some southern regions such as Apulia (-30.2%).

'Demography,' said Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, 'is our x-ray, it shows us who we are and who we are becoming. The problem of denatality is a decisive one, which requires tackling several problems: from housing to care for the elderly, to the women's issue. The complexity of the problem is evident, but it is possible to do something about it'. With these words, the president of the Italian Episcopal Conference emphasised the importance of initiatives such as the States General of Natality because they help to better understand the problem, by having representatives of all institutions, national and local, sit at the same table, this year also travelling across the country with various stops until December. "From the discussion it emerges that we all agree too much, but why is this conviction not translated into priorities?" the cardinal asked himself. 'If we are really all in agreement,' he added, 'this must be translated into a common practice. Unfortunately, instead, there is a polarisation and instrumentalisation of everything, while some humanitarian issues should not become political issues. To promote the birth rate, we need a plan that gives confidence and hope to transmit life'.

At the same table, the Minister for the Family, Natality and Equal Opportunities, Eugenia Maria Roccella, recalled the latest measures approved by the government to support families, which - according to data recently released by the Parliamentary Budget Office - commit a total of €16 billion by 2024. "We must act," the minister said, "through the economic lever, and we are doing so through classic measures that support the family and measures that encourage work-life balance. Roccella also wished to recall an across-the-board reading, which is often made by scholars, of demographic statistics: "Denatality is a welfare issue, it is a disease of developed countries, not of poor countries, which is why it is often defined as a 'demographic paradox'. It is necessary to intervene on an individual and cultural level, supporting the freedom of young people to fulfil themselves, also as parents, by implementing certain welfare policies that elsewhere have been able to reverse this trend'.