Italy is dying: Country’s birth rate drops to its lowest level in history
by Dorothy Cummings McLean, LifeSite:
The shrinking population affects the ‘very existence of our country,’ President Sergio Mattarella warns.
Italy welcomed its smallest number of newborns in 2019, leading its president to foretell the country’s doom.
“This is a problem that concerns the very existence of our country,” said Sergio Mattarella, 78.
“The fabric of our country is weakening, and everything must be done to counter this phenomenon.”
According to Italy’s national statistics agency, ISTAT, there were only 435,000 births in Italy last year, the lowest number ever recorded in the country, compared with 647,000 deaths.
The number of births was down 5,000 from 2018, and the number of deaths increased by 14,000.
Reuters reported that Italy’s overall population fell by 116,000 to 60.3 million despite the growing number of births to migrants to the country. The news agency also noted that “Italy’s population had risen virtually every year since World War I, hitting a peak in 2015 at 60.8 million, but has since started to decline.”
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