ROME, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Italy's population continues to decline, with the latest figures showing that the country's birthrate is the lowest in the last 100 years.
The Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) reported Tuesday that on Jan. 1 of this year the country's population was 60.317 million, around 116,000 less than a year earlier.
But it is the birthrate that is setting records. There are now 1.29 children per woman in Italy, the lowest birthrate since 1918 when Italy was emerging from the rubble of World War I. For every 100 deaths in Italy there are just 67 births; as recently as ten years ago, the institute reported, there were 96 births for every 100 deaths.
In addition to a low birthrate, Italians are living longer than ever -- the average Italian woman can now expect to live to 85.3 years while life expectancy for men is 81.0 years. The number of Italians living in the country has now fallen for five consecutive years as more are leaving the country. As a result, the average age in the country is on the rise, reaching 45.7 years in 2019, one of the highest in the world.
One of the main factors slowing the overall decline of population is the arrival of migrants. The Istat said 307,000 foreigners registered to live in Italy last year while 164,000 foreigners left the country. That represents a net gain of 143,000.
Overall, the percentage of native-born Italians declined in all but one of Italy's 20 geographical regions. Still, the institute reported that last year 91.1 percent of the country's population was born in Italy.
