Istat’s figures confirm that Italy has a large aging population; indeed, 20 per cent of the population is over 64, as compared to 17 per cent in 1997. Life expectancy for Italian women (84.1) is now only second in Europe behind French women (84.4), and second for men (78.6) behind the Swedes (78.9).

Italy’s population is close to reaching 60 million and since 2006 has grown by over 390,000 largely due to longer life expectancy and immigration. The number of births has stayed constant and is higher than the number of deaths, which means that Italy has a positive population growth for the second consecutive year. However, Italians continue to have fewer babies than many countries in Europe with a birth rate of with 1.34 children per woman, which is under the European average of 1.51 children per woman, but is nonetheless above Italy’s historical low of 1.19 in 1995.

The most interesting points revealed by the 2007 statistics are those that reflect the changing social structure of the family. There were fewer marriages and more de facto couples in Italy in 2007 than the year before. Italians are also having more children out of wedlock; indeed, children born from non-married parents reached 18.6 per cent of the total number of children born in Italy, versus 12.3 per cent in 2003. However, “natural” children are still far fewer in Italy than in some countries in Europe such as France and Sweden where 50 per cent of children are born to non-married parents.