• Istat: one child in four is overweight in Italy
  • Istat, a steady decline in the birth rate: -25% for the first children since 2008
  • Istat: older than young, the falling birth rate revolutionizes demography
  • In Europe births are lower than the deaths in 2015. In Italy the lowest birth rate

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November 25, 2019 Births continue to decrease: in 2018, 439,747 children were registered in the Register, over 18,000 fewer than in the previous year and almost 140,000 less in comparison with 2008. Istat reported this.

The persistent decline in the birth rate has repercussions above all on the first children, which are reduced to 204,883, 79 thousand less than in 2008. The average number of children per woman still falls, reaching 1.29; in 2010, the year of maximum relative fertility, it was 1.46. The average age reaches 32 years.

Almost one in three children born out of wedlock
Almost one in three children was born out of wedlock: according to Istat data released today, the percentage of those born out of wedlock was 32.3% in 2018; it was 8.1% in 1995 and 19.6% in 2008.

The share of those born with at least one foreign parent (96,578, down from 2012) was 22%. 65.444 (14.9% of total births) were born to both foreign parents.

In total, last year there was a 4.0% less birth registered in the Registry in 2018 compared to 2017. The decline is mainly attributable to the decrease in the children of both Italian parents (-15.771 units, 85.7% of the drop in births registered in the last year).

439,747 people were born in 2018 (-0.4% compared to 2017); 1.29 is the average number of children per woman; 32 years is the average age at childbirth #istat https://t.co/XePlqzPqV5 pic.twitter.com/dnNQ7gCtbn

- Istat (@istat_it) 25 November 2019


Leonardo and Sofia the favorite names. Francis is overthrown by Leonardo, third Alessandro
Leonardo and Sofia are the favorite names of new parents: on the basis of the information contained in the survey of those registered in birth registry, Istat elaborates the distribution of the most frequent male and female names in 2018. On a national level, the name Francesco loses the its historic record that has seen it as the most chosen name since 2001. In 2018, moving to second place, Francesco is "ousted" from the name Leonardo. In third position, stable, it is still Alessandro.

As last year, the ranking of the first three female names remains unchanged: Sofia, Giulia and Aurora. Although there are almost 29,000 different names for males and over 27,000 for females (including both simple and compound names), the distribution of the number of children according to the name reveals a high concentration around the first 30 in order of frequency, which together cover almost 45% of all names attributed to children and over 38% of those of girls. Although the choice of the name is partly linked to culture, religion (names of saints, patrons) and traditions rooted in individual territories, the concentration of names is still very strong.

Leonardo reaches the record in 14 regions: all those in the Center-North (except for the autonomous province of Bolzano where the name Elias stands out) as well as in Abruzzo and Sardinia. At the regional level, the name Francesco ranks first in only 4 Italian regions, all of the South (Molise, Puglia, Basilicata and Calabria). Alessandro, on the other hand, ranks third nationally, not the first in any region. Giuseppe continues to excel in Sicily and Antonio in Campania. For girls, with the exception of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, where the name Emma stands out, the same three names of the national podium are found in all the local realities. Sofia is confirmed in first place in ten regions of the Center-North, in Basilicata (tied with Giulia) and in Calabria. Aurora, stable in third place in the standings compared to last year, stands out in the Marche and in four regions of the South (Abruzzo, Molise, Campania and Sardinia). The name Giulia, also stable in second place, returns to the top of the list in Lazio, Puglia and Sicily.