Culture Italy's population stops shrinking after 12 years, thanks to migration - Bee numbers stabilized by wasps

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By Valentina Consiglio
March 31, 20265:38 AM CDT
Updated March 31, 2026

Summary

• Resident population held steady at around 59 million
• Net immigration at 296,000 last year
• Without migrants, population would have shrunk by 297,000
• Fertility rate down to 1.14 children per woman

ROME, March 31 (Reuters) - Italy's population has stabilised after 12 ‌years of decline, with immigration almost entirely offsetting a shrinking number of births, while life expectancy continues to rise, national statistics agency ISTAT said on Tuesday.

Preliminary data showed the resident population stood at 58.94 million on January 1 this year, virtually unchanged from a year earlier, ISTAT said in its annual ⁠demographic report.

"Italy remains a country where only very positive net migration can offset a largely negative natural change and where the population continues to age," the statistics bureau said.

Without a sustained inflows of migrants the population will resume shrinking, intensifying long‑term pressures on the labour market and public finances, it added.
The influx of immigrants has taken place under the right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has taken a tough line on undocumented migrants while also increasing work visas for non-EU citizens.

BIRTHS DROP TO A ‌NEW RECORD ⁠LOW​

Births dropped to 355,000 in 2025, down 3.9% from the previous year to a new record low since the country's unification in 1861, while deaths held broadly steady at 652,000, yielding a negative balance of close to 300,000 people.

Fertility fell further to an average of ⁠1.14 children per woman, among the lowest levels in Europe and well below the replacement rate of 2.1, reflecting delayed parenthood and a shrinking pool of potential parents.

Net immigration stood at ⁠296,000, with arrivals from abroad reaching 440,000, while emigration fell sharply to 144,000, the lowest level recorded in the past decade.
The foreign resident population rose by 188,000 ⁠to 5.56 million.

Life expectancy increased further after the COVID-19 pandemic years, reaching 81.7 years for men and 85.7 for women, placing Italy among the longest-living countries in the European Union, ISTAT said.

Reporting by Valentina Consiglio, editing by Gavin Jones

 

[Beelzebub's Lawyer]

It's OK, guys.
You don't need to worry, the invaders are replacing you, you don't need to breed anymore.

 

[RSU 1741]

You could give any Euro 10M$ and a 10/10 wife and he would just live in his hedonism with some other excuse why he can't having kids due to climate/politics.

One of the things that Americans fail to appreciate is that there's a price for the (very) theoretical advantages of Europe. Europoor isn't exactly a meme, Euros are poor as dirt compared to the baseline American. German median income is what, 60k dollars? Cut it by one third or one half because everything is taxed to shit. French? 40k. Italy? 25k.

You don't exactly plan for children when you need to be 30+ to have a salary that covers living expenses, a 20+ years mortgage to get a dingy apartment, you have no hope for improvement and your welfare is being sucked dry by everything with a pulse. Most Euros aren't hedonists, they're desperate.

 

[ZazietheBeast]

Translation: Italy is fast-tracked into becoming a shithole.

 

[Marvin]

The truth is that Italy is a nation

I mean, modern Italy is barely a country. It's synthetic.

One of the things that Americans fail to appreciate is that there's a price for the (very) theoretical advantages of Europe. Europoor isn't exactly a meme, Euros are poor as dirt compared to the baseline American. German median income is what, 60k dollars? Cut it by one third or one half because everything is taxed to shit. French? 40k. Italy? 25k.

The 20th percentile American consumes more than the 50th percentile in a lot of European countries including the UK. (Consumption is the best measure of poverty because it accounts for both government welfare services as well as take home pay.)

All bleating about evil Monty Burns style capitalists aside, at the end of the day, free market capitalism does work.

Lots of American women are dazzled by stereotypical portrayals of picturesque alpine villages or Greek islands, but in practice, those people are dirt poor. That dude's hauling produce up a mountain path with a donkey not because it looks cute, but because that's literally all he can afford.

 

[Fount of BadSpeak]

You could give any Euro 10M$ and a 10/10 wife and he would just live in his hedonism with some other excuse why he can't having kids due to climate/politics. At best having a single one which he will just give to his foreign maid to raise.

If humans needed the perfect environment for kids, it wouldn't be Africa and India that have positive growth rate.

Only in the modern standards. If men decided, then things would be very different. Yeah, it's very hard to convince a woman, especially a White woman, to take on the biggest responsibility of her life after a lifetime of hedonistic debauchery, but most men do not have the same limitations, in no small part because we are expected to fund said hedonistic debauchery, not enjoy it. The limitations men have is a biological shortcoming requires us to convince a legal equal to have and care for the kid. You know how I know? Because I know a good number of White men who would absolutely have children, but the men aren't the bottleneck here.

Africa and India also overwhelmingly tell women to shut the fuck up and pop out babies. Yeah, if you let people who are allergic to accountability decide on babies, then there won't be many babies, because you are hoping that her biology outweighs her spoiled nature. The White man's real problem (I declare you honorary for the purpose of this exchange) is his obsession with feminism. Remove that, and birth rates would bounce back in a decade or less. The solution is simple, but it requires telling women "no", and the White man is too cowardly to do what needs to be done.

One of the things that Americans fail to appreciate is that there's a price for the (very) theoretical advantages of Europe. Europoor isn't exactly a meme, Euros are poor as dirt compared to the baseline American. German median income is what, 60k dollars? Cut it by one third or one half because everything is taxed to shit. French? 40k. Italy? 25k.

You don't exactly plan for children when you need to be 30+ to have a salary that covers living expenses, a 20+ years mortgage to get a dingy apartment, you have no hope for improvement and your welfare is being sucked dry by everything with a pulse. Most Euros aren't hedonists, they're desperate.

If that was true then browns wouldn't shit out babies no problem. If that was true, then Whites wouldn't have bred through multiple millenia of much worse times without hesitation. The problem is that many Whites, especially women, do not want to give up their hedonistic lifestyles. Women in the past used an old cabinet drawer with a blanket for a crib. They had windowsill gardens. They cooked from scratch to save money. They sewed little toys out of scrap cloth for the kids. My great grandma raised my grandfather in a shack without running water or electricity. It has nothing to do with "poverty" or "desperation". You think any women would tolerate that nowadays, or would they squeal about how being useful is "slavery" and demand to go slave for Mr. Goldstein instead so they can fuel their promiscuity?

Unless "desperation" is supposed to mean "Help me, I can not afford my SSRIs, box wine, and my Disney + subscription this month! This is why I can not have kids!", then I am not buying it.

 

[Irreedemable Ret. 2]

Only in the modern standards. If men decided, then things would be very different. Yeah, it's very hard to convince a woman, especially a White woman, to take on the biggest responsibility of her life after a lifetime of hedonistic debauchery, but most men do not have the same limitations, in no small part because we are expected to fund said hedonistic debauchery, not enjoy it. The limitations men have is a biological shortcoming requires us to convince a legal equal to have and care for the kid. You know how I know? Because I know a good number of White men who would absolutely have children, but the men aren't the bottleneck here.

Africa and India also overwhelmingly tell women to shut the fuck up and pop out babies. Yeah, if you let people who are allergic to accountability decide on babies, then there won't be many babies, because you are hoping that her biology outweighs her spoiled nature. The White man's real problem (I declare you honorary for the purpose of this exchange) is his obsession with feminism. Remove that, and birth rates would bounce back in a decade or less. The solution is simple, but it requires telling women "no", and the White man is too cowardly to do what needs to be done.

If that was true then browns wouldn't shit out babies no problem. If that was true, then Whites wouldn't have bred through multiple millenia of much worse times without hesitation. The problem is that many Whites, especially women, do not want to give up their hedonistic lifestyles. Women in the past used an old cabinet drawer with a blanket for a crib. They had windowsill gardens. They cooked from scratch to save money. They sewed little toys out of scrap cloth for the kids. My great grandma raised my grandfather in a shack without running water or electricity. It has nothing to do with "poverty" or "desperation". You think any women would tolerate that nowadays, or would they squeal about how being useful is "slavery" and demand to go slave for Mr. Goldstein instead so they can fuel their promiscuity?

Unless "desperation" is supposed to mean "Help me, I can not afford my SSRIs, box wine, and my Disney + subscription this month! This is why I can not have kids!", then I am not buying it.

You are 2 steps away from saying "Poverty is BASED"

 

[Crex Crex]

I mean, modern Italy is barely a country. It's synthetic.

Lol it isn't, we're just a victim of a campaign of annihiliation waged against our national identity by spiteful leftists who have occupied our academia.
To put it in perspective, imagine if democrats won the next election and immediately set out to completely restructure American national identity around themselves by memoryholing everything from the war of Independence to Obama's election, which becomes the new foundational event of the country. Imagine if they made it an official policy to teach as little as possible about the founding fathers, and what little is taught spitefully belittles everything americans have fought for and achieved and decrying how America is a fake and gay country because it didn't immediately implement turbocommunist republicanism. Imagine if they drew up a new constitution designed to keep them in power forever, and decreed americans are inherently evil and will inevitably bring back fascist Trumpism unless the new constitution's ass is kissed forever and it is never altered despite becoming hopelessly outdated. This is more or less what happened to Italy.

Lots of American women are dazzled by stereotypical portrayals of picturesque alpine villages or Greek islands, but in practice, those people are dirt poor. That dude's hauling produce up a mountain path with a donkey not because it looks cute, but because that's literally all he can afford.

Nigga no one lives like that anymore, the donkeys are kept around because retarded amerifat tourists are obsessed with them lmao.

 

[Sweeter and Savoury]

Jeet's will inherit the Earth I guess

No matter where you go in the West it's Jeets, Jeets, Jeets. They will gain control just by out breeding the locals and inside 10 generation they're the majority and your country isn't yours anymore.

Funny this is most countries have very strict importation rules to prevent invasive species from causing havoc on the local environment but at the same time throw the doors wide open to the parasite of India.

 

[Toxic BRAAAAP Mask]

Sometimes it's okay the population doesn't continually go up.

 

[Boldizar]

vote harder next time.

Vote directly in someone's skull

If humans needed the perfect environment for kids, it wouldn't be Africa and India that have positive growth rate.

Africa and India are in "demographic transition" stage, the same Europe was in 19th century. This population explosion is only a brief period.

 

[kestewin]

Inmigration seems like the only solution when young Italians arent given the resources they need to feel safe and secure enough to build a family.

Immigration isn't the only reason they don't feel safe. Racism is real, but there are so many problems for modern Italians in their domestic labor market without mass migration. Corporations rig it against employees so they can liquidate them. Job retention in the private sector is laughable whether you never went to uni nor if you got a degree in comparison to neighboring countries.

For most Italians imho brown people slowly climbing up the economic strata are less scary than the total unemployment of native white people—unemployment in the country was the highest of all western European economies for a long time if not still. Youth unemployment has been between 20% for the past decade and is only dropping because of immigration, not the opposite. Not very good for the educated Italian person that wasn't ever gonna compete with them in lower class jobs.

The number of Italians who live abroad from 20~30 also is a number shy of half a million iirc, which also means no white children from them. This is actually much, much scarier than the media image of a town deserted by ageing now full of African migrants. They live in places like Sweden and Germany where pay, worker protections, and future promotions are better for hedonism or child-rearing. Can't really blame them, but it's sad that they left a whole village empty in their native country waiting for their grandma to die.

I recall Sicily had multiple international campaigns where they would give free land in the countrysides and residency to anyone who offered to live there. I dont know if it was successful. Probably not.

Yeah, but they're kinda sketchy. Probably hella mafia money given how money moves there, even in the regional government. Before they did that there was a big wave of real estate speculation in Sissy-Lee like the rest of the PIIGS countries. I went in 2009 to eastern Sicily and it was insane to look at the number of cookie-cutter McMansions built in towns that had no locals that could afford them. They probably never got a buyer given the economic situation in the south. I don't think many techies or yuppies took the offer, either.

You could give any Euro 10M$ and a 10/10 wife and he would just live in his hedonism with some other excuse why he can't having kids due to climate/politics. At best having a single one which he will just give to his foreign maid to raise.

If humans needed the perfect environment for kids, it wouldn't be Africa and India that have positive growth rate.

"Could" more like should lmao. The biological clock 30's creeps up on Peter Pan syndrome, and tbh euros settling down and having plus-one kids might be closer than people think.

 

[RSU 1741]

I mean, modern Italy is barely a country. It's synthetic.

Italy is at best a geographic notion. Or a linguistic one, and even then, only barely. After all, the true loyalty of an Italian is to his own family first, then to his town, then .... it varies, it goes from Mammon to the Church. The State is an oppressor at best.

To put it in perspective

To put it into perspective, imagine that the Royal Family (Frenchmen, not even Italians) were put into power in the late 1800ies by a British plot to inconvenience the Austrians, and lost every conflict conceivable in the most humiliating way possible bar a couple (and barely edged a win in WW1 by riding on the coattails of the winners and drowning the Austrians in the blood of conscripts). Then they gave the country to a random journo that made up some schizo political party that for 20+ years meme'd the country until they got smashed by the Brits and the Americans, then the Royals fled like cowards begging the same Anglos for forgiveness. Can't think why the common Italian thinks that the Savoia were an embarrassment and Unification a historical tragedy.

Then the Christian Democrats stay in power for 40+ years with gib-based tactics that would make South Africa blush (half of Italy is after all barely above nigger-tier and needs to be extensively coddled with endless welfare) until they collapse upon themselves and Berlusconi ran for 20+ years on a political program based on tax evasion and prostitution.

And then politics became so retarded the pick is between a literal cuckold (Meloni) a Swiss Jew (Schlein) or a certified retard (Salvini). If only the Constitution was the main problem.

 

[Crex Crex]

and barely edged a win in WW1 by riding on the coattails of the winners and drowning the Austrians in the blood of conscripts

British plot to inconvenience the Austrians,

Rofl thanks for proving my point.

 

[natural born loser]

So you replaced the Italians in great numbers?

 

[Fount of BadSpeak]

You are 2 steps away from saying "Poverty is BASED"

I apologize for using too many big words for you. Let me make it simpler:

All evidence proves that poverty has absolutely nothing to do with having children. While it is true that there are systems in place to actively discourage and punish White reproduction (anti White male laws, divorce court, family court, welfare systems, etc.), the amount of money people have has nothing to do with whether they have kids or not. I used examples of reproduction in impoverished times from the past to demonstrate what I meant.

Hopefully that was a bit easier for you to grasp.

 

[ZsaZsaBinks]

It’s better that a country shrink in population rather than grow due to third world immigration.

 

[HarblMcDavid]

Not mentioned by the article: those babies come out of the womb with a folding cardboard display complete with a full complement of fake designer sunglasses...

 

[Wujime]

Italy is at best a geographic notion. Or a linguistic one, and even then, only barely. After all, the true loyalty of an Italian is to his own family first, then to his town, then .... it varies, it goes from Mammon to the Church. The State is an oppressor at best.



To put it into perspective, imagine that the Royal Family (Frenchmen, not even Italians) were put into power in the late 1800ies by a British plot to inconvenience the Austrians, and lost every conflict conceivable in the most humiliating way possible bar a couple (and barely edged a win in WW1 by riding on the coattails of the winners and drowning the Austrians in the blood of conscripts). Then they gave the country to a random journo that made up some schizo political party that for 20+ years meme'd the country until they got smashed by the Brits and the Americans, then the Royals fled like cowards begging the same Anglos for forgiveness. Can't think why the common Italian thinks that the Savoia were an embarrassment and Unification a historical tragedy.

Then the Christian Democrats stay in power for 40+ years with gib-based tactics that would make South Africa blush (half of Italy is after all barely above nigger-tier and needs to be extensively coddled with endless welfare) until they collapse upon themselves and Berlusconi ran for 20+ years on a political program based on tax evasion and prostitution.

And then politics became so retarded the pick is between a literal cuckold (Meloni) a Swiss Jew (Schlein) or a certified retard (Salvini). If only the Constitution was the main problem.

You forgot the part where the jews supplied the money to the french family to hire a southern american bandit and conquer the rest of italy, but in exchange for it they had to not call it conquest so that the public debt of all the little nations would be added to a massive public debt book which doomed the new nation from the start.

 

[Sicko Hunter]

ROME, March 31 (Reuters) - Italy's population has stabilised after 12 ‌years of decline, with immigration almost entirely offsetting a shrinking number of births, while life expectancy continues to rise, national statistics agency ISTAT said on Tuesday.

Preliminary data showed the resident population stood at 58.94 million on January 1 this year, virtually unchanged from a year earlier, ISTAT said in its annual ⁠demographic report.

"Italy remains a country where only very positive net migration can offset a largely negative natural change and where the population continues to age," the statistics bureau said.

Without a sustained inflows of migrants the population will resume shrinking, intensifying long‑term pressures on the labour market and public finances, it added.
The influx of immigrants has taken place under the right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has taken a tough line on undocumented migrants while also increasing work visas for non-EU citizens.

If you question that this is planned demographic replacement by the powers that be they imprison you by the way.

 

[okyt]

If humans needed the perfect environment for kids, it wouldn't be Africa and India that have positive growth rate.

The inability to plan ahead is the third worlds superpower.