Births and fertility of the resident population - Year 2026

Births continue to decline: in 2025, there were 355,772 births, down by 3.8% over 2024 (-14 thousand units).

According to provisional data, there were 196,864 births in the period January-July 2026, a decrease of 1.1% compared with the same period in 2025 (-2 thousand).

The average number of children per woman reaches a new all-time low: in 2025, it stands at 1.14 (down from 1.18 in 2024). The provisional estimate for the period January–July 2026 shows a fertility rate of 1.13.

The fertility rate among women with a high education is lower (1.09 children per woman) and occurs later in life (average age at childbirth of 34.9 years) than among women with a low education (1.58 children and 29.7 years).

Also in 2025, Sofia and Leonardo are the names parents prefer for their children. In 2025, 7.3% of newborns were given double surnames, one from each parent. The percentage was 6.7% in 2024.

The 4, there were 369,944 births, down by 2.6% over the previous year (a decrease of almost 10,000 units).

In 2025, based on provisional data for January-July, there were approximately 13 thousand fewer births than in the same period in 2024 (-6.3%).

The average number of children per woman reaches an all-time low: in 2024, it stands at 1.18, down from 1.20 in 2023. The provisional estimate for the first seven months of 2025 shows a fertility rate of 1.13.

Around 14 thousand fewer births in 2025

In 2025, there were 355,772 births residents in Italy, six per 1,000 inhabitants. Compared to 2024, the number of births decreased by 3.8%, about 14 thousand fewer births. Since 2008, the year with the highest number of live births in the 2000s (over 576,000, nearly 10 births per 1,000 inhabitants), the decline has been 38.3%, representing an overall reduction of over 220 thousand births.

According to the first provisional data for the period January–July 2026, the number of births continues to decline, although at a slower rate than the decline recorded in the previous year. In the first seven months of the year, there were 196,864 births, about 2 thousand fewer (-1.1%) than in the same period of 2025 (198,975 births).

In recent years, the decline in births has been partly driven by the decrease in the number of potential parents, who themselves were born from the 1980s onward, a period during which the decline in fertility became increasingly pronounced. Women who are currently between the ages of 30 and 40, an age group that accounts for over 65% of current births, were born between 1985 and 1995, a period during which the average number of children per woman fell from 1.45 to 1.19, the lowest figure of the last century. However, the current decline in births is also the result of an increasingly low tendency to have children. In 2025, the average number of children per woman falls further, reaching 1.14 and marking a new all-time low, following the previous low in 2024 (1.18).

The number of births to both Italian and foreign parents is declining. Births to Italian parents, which account for more than three-quarters of total births (77.4%) and are equal to 275,330 in 2025, are down by 4.8% over 2024 and by 42.6% over 2008. Births to foreign parents, totaling 49,002 in 2025, are down by 3.1% compared to 2024 and by 38.7% compared to 2012, the year in which the highest number was recorded. Births to mixed-nationality couples (Italian father/foreign mother or foreign father/Italian mother), numbering 31,440 in 2025, increased by 4.2% compared to 2024 and by 11.8% compared to 2012.

In 2025, the number of both first and subsequent order births continues to decline. The number of first children amount at 174,842, down by 3.7%; the number of second children (127,479) is down by 4.8%; and the number of third and subsequent order children (53,451) is down by 2.1%. The decline in first- and second-born children is more pronounced in the Mezzogiorno: the number of first-born children falls by 5.3% (compared with -2.3% in the North and -3.9% in the Centre), and the number of second-born children by 5.5% (-4.3% in the North and -4.6% in the Centre). The trends observed in 2025 are consistent with the pattern that has been in place since 2008, when, alongside the decline in second-born children (-41.1%), a significant reduction in first-born children (-38.6%) also began.

The challenges in realizing all or part of reproductive plans are linked to a variety of factors, including longer periods of education, the precarious conditions of youth employment, and difficulties in accessing the housing market. These are accompanied by challenges in conciliating work and family life, as well as the choice to postpone or renounce to parenthood in order to focus on alternatives to having children.

Children born to foreign parents is declining, children born to mixed couples is rising

During the first decade of the 2000s, the increase in births to couples with at least one foreign partner was a particularly significant phenomenon, contributing to the overall recovery in the number of births during that period. In the following decade, however, the trend changed and a decline was observed, causing this category of births to fall from 108,005 in 2012 to 80,942 in 2023. In the last two years, this trend appears to have stabilized, so much so that from 2024 to 2025, the number of births to at least one foreign parent fell from 80,761 to 80,442, accounting for 22.6% of total births.

Recent data on children born to mixed-nationality couples (Italian father/foreign mother or foreign father/Italian mother) and children born to parents who are both foreign nationals highlight some differences. Births to mixed-nationality couples, which account for 8.8% of the total, increase by a further 4.2% in 2025 compared to 2024 (31,440 births versus 30,168), confirming a trend of growth that has been ongoing since 2020. The increase observed over the past year is particularly pronounced for children born to mixed-nationality couples where the father is foreign (+11.0%), while it is slight when the mother is foreign (+0.9%). Births to parents who are both foreign nationals, which account for 13.8% of the total, decline to 49,002 in 2025 (down from 50,593 in 2024), marking a 3.1% decrease. The decline in births among couples with Italian parents is more pronounced, at -4.8%.

There is a higher incidence of births to mixed-nationality and foreign couples in the Centre-North, where the foreign population is more stable and deeply established. In 2025, the share of these births out of the total stands at 31.2% in the North and 24.7% in the Cenre, while in the Mezzogiorno it amounts to 10.0%, well below the national average (22.6%).

Considering only children born to parents who are both foreign nationals, the pattern remains similar: in the Mezzogiorno, although the percentage has increased since 2024, it remains lower than elsewhere (6.1% compared to a national average of 13.8%). In the North, the percentage of foreign-born children is 18.9%, while in the Centre it is 15.2%. For the first year, Liguria is the region with the highest proportion of foreign-born children relative to the total (21.8%), followed by Emilia-Romagna (21.6%) and Lombardia (19.4%). In Central Italy, Toscana stands out (17.8%), while in Mezzogiorno, the percentage ranges from a low of 4.4% in Sardegna to a high of 10.0% in Abruzzo.

Taking into account the specific nationality of the parents, the most common among foreign nationalities is Romanian (9,645 children born in 2025 with at least one parent of that nationality), followed by Moroccan (9,636) and Albanian (8,353) (Figure 1). As regards the composition of the parental couple, significant differences are observed in terms of homogamy. For example, amongst Nigerian nationals, in 91.2% of cases both parents hold that nationality, compared with 8.8% of cases where only one partner holds it. The proportion of same-nationality couples is also particularly high amongst Chinese parents (81.4% of cases). Conversely, the lowest proportion of same-nationality couples is recorded for Ukrainian citizenship (50.4%), most often involving a couple where the mother is Ukrainian and the father is Italian (44.6%). Conversely, in the opposite scenario – where the father is a foreign national with an Italian partner – the nationality with the highest proportion of mixed-nationality births out of the total is Tunisian (20.2%).