[ad_1]
By AFP
More by this author
Italy's demographic time bomb was a bit stronger Wednesday, while the National Statistics Institute announced that the country's birth rate had dropped further in 2017.
Last year, just over 458,000 births were registered, or 15,000 fewer than in 2016 in this second country of the world in terms of the elderly population compared to the total population, just behind the Japan.
"The numbers confirm a declining trend initiated in recent years, with 120,000 fewer births last year than in 2008," said the institute (ISTAT).
This decrease can be explained in part by the decline in the number of women of childbearing age in Italy, which reached 12.8 million, 900,000 fewer than in 2008.
The most popular names given to newborns in 2017 were Francesco for boys, perhaps in the honor of Pope Francis, and Sofia for girls.
The pontiff drew criticism from some circles in 2015 when he told Catholics not to breed "like rabbits".
The Italian populist government unveiled last month its intention to reward parents who have a third child by giving them a piece of land, in order to reverse the nation's plummeting birth rate.
[ad_2]
Source link
