Rome, May 3 (beraking latest news Salute) – Provisional data shows that in 2020 births amounted to 404 thousand while deaths reached the exceptional level of 746 thousand. The result is a natural dynamic (births-deaths) negative to the extent of 342 thousand units. This is what is read in the Istat report on the 2020 demographic indicators. There are essentially 7 newborns and 13 deaths per thousand inhabitants.
2020, explains Istat in the report, marks yet another reduction in births that seems to have no end. In the space of 12 years we have gone from a relative peak of 577 thousand births to the current 404 thousand, a good 30% less. The contraction of reproductive projects, with a total fertility rate dropped last year to 1.24 children per woman from 1.27 in 2019 (it was 1.40 in 2008), are also accompanied by dimensional and structural deficits in the female population of age. fertile, which decreases over time and has an increasing average age.
If he had procreated with the same intensity and with the same fertility calendar as in 2019, when 420 thousand births were recorded, about 413 thousand would have been observed in 2020, instead of 404 thousand. Therefore, the structural effect alone linked to the aging process of the female population in childbearing age leads to a reduction, all things being equal, of at least 7 thousand births. The further decrease of 9 thousand over 2019 is instead the result of the real contraction of the reproductive levels expressed.
On these dynamics, which have been repeating themselves for years, constituting the key issue of national demography, the effects of the pandemic could manifest themselves, in the case, only with reference to the month of December 2020. In fact, it must be considered that the psychological impact of Covid- 19, as well as the restrictions adopted, had an impact on reproductive choices only starting from March.
This is what also suggests the trend of births per single month in 2020, compared with 2019. In particular, with the exception of February, monthly births in 2020 are always below those of 2019, confirming the continuation of the trend reduction started in recent years.