Istat, the birth rate is still falling. One in three children has unmarried parents

One in three born of unmarried couples

In total, 4% less births occurred last year. The decline is mainly attributable to the decrease in the children of both Italian parents (-15.771 units, 85.7% of the decline). The share of those born with at least one foreign parent (96,578, down from 2012) was 22%. While those born to both foreign parents are 65,444 (14.9% of the total). According to the new Istat data, the drop in the birth rate has an impact on the first children, 204,883, 79 thousand less than in 2008. Almost one child in three was born out of wedlock: the percentage was 32.3% in 2018; it was 8.1% in 1995 and 19.6% in 2008.

Maximum fertility in Bolzano, minimum in Sardinia

The number of children per woman is always decreasing: in 2018 they are on average 1.29 (1.32 in 2017), accentuating the decrease in progress since 2010, the year in which the relative maximum was recorded of 1.46. We return to the same levels as 15 years ago. However, 1.29 in 2003 was observed in a recovery phase of fertility after the historical minimum recorded in 1995, attributable to the contribution of foreign women. The North has the record for fertility levels (1.32 in the North-West and 1.36 in the North-east), especially in the Provinces of Bolzano and Trento (1.72 and 1.45 respectively). In the South, the value stood at 1.26 (1.29 in 2017) while in the Center it fell from 1.27 to 1.23. At the regional level, Sardinia is the region where there are fewer children (1.02 per woman).

One becomes a mother at the age of 32

The average age reaches 32 years. The economic crisis – explains the Institute of Statistics – has acted directly on the birth rate. Women have accentuated the postponement of motherhood towards increasingly advanced ages; compared to 1995, the average age at childbirth increases by more than two years, reaching 32 years; the average age at birth of the first child is even more marked, standing at 31.2 years in 2018 (three more than in 1995).

One out of five has foreign parents

In the North 1 out of 5 both have foreign parents. First place among foreign born children is the Romanian children (13.530), followed by Moroccans (9.193), Albanians (6.944) and Chinese (3.362). These four communities represent half of the total. The incidence is much higher in the North (20.7% in the North-east and 21.0% in the North-west, with a peak of 24; 3% in Emilia Roagna) where the foreign presence is more stable and rooted and , to a lesser extent, in the Center (17.5%); in the South it is much lower than in the rest of Italy (6.0% in the South and 5.6% in the Islands).

Considering the citizenship of mothers, the number of women born from Romania is confirmed first (17,668 in 2018), followed by those of Moroccan women (11,774) and Albanians (8,791). The propensity to form a family with children among fellow citizens is high in Asian and African communities. In contrast, Polish, Russian and Brazilian women have more children with Italian partners than with Italians.

Exhausted the effect of boomers

The contribution to the birth rate of foreign citizens is reduced: from 2012 to 2018, those born with at least one foreign parent also decrease. The "reductine" – explains the Institute of Statistics – is almost exclusively attributable to those born of both foreign parents: for the first time they fell below 70 thousand in 2016 (69.379), they are 65.444 in 2018 (14.9% of total births) , almost 2,500 fewer than in 2017.

The resident foreign women, who until now had partially filled the "gaps" of the female population in the structure by age of the Italians, are in turn "aging": the quota of 35-49 years passes from 42.7% of 1 January 2008 to 52.7% as of 1 January 2019. This transformation is the consequence of migration dynamics in the last decade. The major regularisations of 2002 gave rise, in the years 2003-2004, to the granting of approximately 650 thousand residence permits, translated into a "boom" of registration in the registry office from abroad (over 1 million 100 thousand in all). The boomers, arrived or "emerged" following the regularizations, realized their reproductive projects in the next ten years, contributing to the increase of births in that period.

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