news Italian births drop to lowest level since country’s unification

[Gwendolyn]

Fewer than 400,000 babies were born in Italy last year, the lowest number since the 1861 unification of the country, highlighting worsening demographic dynamics in an economy beset by high levels of public debt.

 

Just 393,000 babies were born in Italy in 2022, the national statistics agency Istat said on Friday, down about 1.8 per cent from the 400,249 born in 2021.

 

The decline came despite the introduction of a financial incentive scheme aimed at encouraging more women to have children.

The scheme, crafted by former prime minister Mario Draghi’s government in 2021, provides families with monthly financial allowances ranging from €50 to €175 for every newborn child. Those payments continue until the child is either economically independent or reaches 21.

 

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/europe/2023/04/07/italian-births-drop-to-lowest-level-since-countrys-unification/

[magazine]

Good

[Trent W]

No one wants to have children anymore

 

Children are becoming a thing of the rich now.

[Aren]

Good. May the rest of the world follow suit. The world is extremely overpopulated. 

[ProudLBS]

1 hour ago, Gwendolyn said:

monthly financial allowances ranging from €50 to €175 for every newborn child

that kind of incentives only attracts welfare queens

Edited April 7, 2023 by ProudLBS

[GentleEarthquake]

Great

[Wonderland]

I'm really not surprised. Having children seems like a disaster in this day and age  

[Feanor]

Decreasing birth rates seem to be the future for every country at some point. I wonder in 50-100 years, when the world population is predicted to drop, how far down it'll go, because if these dropping birth rates from developed countries show us one thing, it's that no incentives to increase births really work.

[Happylittlepunk]

That’s because it’s too expensive to have children. Plus I do believe only people who want children should have them anyway. 25% of people are terrible parents many just want kids because it’s the norm or because they want to do a check off list. Children are blessing and don’t deserve shitty parents. 

[Eóghan]

Italy has more or less the same population as the UK and France, both are around 700k babies per year. so yeah 400k is quite alarming.

[ariananext]

5 minutes ago, Eóghan said:

Italy has more or less the same population as the UK and France, both are around 700k babies per year. so yeah 400k is quite alarming.

The job market is at the pits here. Young people with a degree hardly find anything that pays over 1000€ a month, unless you're in the med, law or tech field. That makes it impossible to leave your family's home and get your own place, as you would spend all of your income on rent and nothing would be left, hence less and less people are getting married and having children. It's literally becoming impossible. 

[Intuition]

On 4/7/2023 at 12:41 PM, Trent W said:

No one wants to have children anymore

 

Children are becoming a thing of the rich now.

Not really. Africa has the highest fertility rate in the world.

It's Europe in general that has very low fertility rate and it's been that way for quite awhile.  

[ariananext]

6 minutes ago, Intuition said:

Not really. Africa has the highest fertility rate in the world.

It's Europe in general that has very low fertility rate and it's been that way for quite awhile.  

That doesn't make the og statement any less true. My dad was the only one working in my family and they raised 4 children, the rent was around 500€ a month for a nice house. Now the rent is double that price for the same house and my job pays half of what my dad earned, he worked in a factory, I work 9-5 in the office with a degree and a master. I have no idea what's happening but my boyfriend and I are 24 and are not in the conditions to put on a family, while my parents had their first child at 20. And so many young people are unemployed here, especially in the south of Italy. It might be a bit better in the north but the situation doesn't look good either. 

Edited April 8, 2023 by ariananext

[Johnny Jacobs]

Give me some hot Italians ill give them babies

[A.R.L]

On 4/7/2023 at 7:19 PM, Aren said:

Good. May the rest of the world follow suit. The world is extremely overpopulated. 

This, but then again Italy is a developed country, good luck telling that to people leaving in poor/least developed countries with bad education system. 

Edited April 9, 2023 by A.R.L

[AMIT]

23 hours ago, ariananext said:

That doesn't make the og statement any less true. My dad was the only one working in my family and they raised 4 children, the rent was around 500€ a month for a nice house. Now the rent is double that price for the same house and my job pays half of what my dad earned, he worked in a factory, I work 9-5 in the office with a degree and a master. I have no idea what's happening but my boyfriend and I are 24 and are not in the conditions to put on a family, while my parents had their first child at 20. And so many young people are unemployed here, especially in the south of Italy. It might be a bit better in the north but the situation doesn't look good either.