Birth and fertility of the resident population

In 2013, 514,308 births were registered in the Resident Population Register. There were 20,000 fewer births than in 2012. The figures confirm the downward trend that began in 2009: the number of births decreased substantially in five years (-62,000 births).

The recent decline in births mainly resulted from the decrease in the number of children born to Italian parents (approximately 70,000 fewer births in five years).

Marriage remains the most common family setting for births in Italy. The observed decline in the number of marriages had a negative impact on births. In 2013, the number of births to married partners had dropped under 400,000 for the first time. Births within marriage were 380,863, appoximately 83 thousand fewer in five years.

In 2013 births outside marriage increased sligtly and reached 133,000 births. As a result the relative weight of births to unmarried couples increased: more than one baby out of four was born to an unmarried couple. In particular, in the Centre-North area 30% of babies were born to unmarried couples.

In 2013, 104,100 babies were born to couples with at least one foreign parent (20.2% of all births); for the first time their number decreased (a fall of 3,239 compared to 2012).

A major decrease was observed in the number of babies born to foreign parents (2,189 fewer births than in 2012) which totalled 77,705 in 2013 (15.0% of all births).

Considering foreign mothers, women from Romania, Morocco, Albania and China had the highest number of babies in Italy last year. In particular, Romanian mothers gave birth to 19,492 babies, Moroccan to 12,778, Albanian to 9,966 and Chinese to 4,969. Births to these four citizenships accounted for almost 45% of births to foreign mothers.

The average number of children per woman has slightly declined and fell to 1.39, compared with 1.46 in 2010. Total fertility rate was 1.29 children for Italian women and 2.10 for foreign women.

How many babies are named…?

Istat’s name counter helps you to know how many children born and registered at the Italian Registry Office in a year have the same name and what are the most popular among the over 60,000 different names chosen by parents.