The birth rate, a pending issue that has dragged Italy on for years, is now shaking the country with alarming figures. The country’s Economy Minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti, has presented an aid plan for families who are going to have a child. The minister, in the appearance in the Senate where he was heard about the economic planning measures, said that one cannot be indifferent to the demographic trend, which represents one of the greatest challenges in the medium and long term and requires broad political cooperation. .
The Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who has been in charge of the Government since October 22, has established the Ministry of Family, Birth and Equal Opportunities and has promised measures to encourage birth rates and female work. For his part, Minister Giorgetti specified: “I think that it is not even a question of talking about incentives for birth rates, but rather of eliminating disincentives for birth rates: we cannot tax singles and those who have a family in the same way with children, because obviously whoever has children has costs that in some way alter the concept, so dear to many here present, of the progressiveness of the tax burden”. Italy would be the second country in Europe to have a standard that goes in this direction. Viktor Orbán’s Hungary offers since 2020 the possibility to all those with four or more children of not paying income taxes.
The Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT) in the latest report published this month, with data relating to 2022, shows how the demographic future of Italy is at historic lows, with less than seven births per 1,000 inhabitants, while mortality remains high, with more than 12 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants. The downward trend in the birth rate has become a constant, but in 2022, for the first time since the Unity of Italy, the country registers a number of newborns below the threshold of 400,000. In 2022 there were about 184,000 fewer births than in 2018, and in 2015 the number of births stopped exceeding the 500,000 threshold.
The situation, which is profoundly changing the demographic structure of the country, has repercussions both in society and in the health system and in the labor market. According to experts, it will take several generations to reverse the demographic decline that the country is experiencing.
“The proposal of the Minister of Economy is absolutely acceptable. To encourage the birth rate, it is necessary to reduce the taxation of families with one or more dependent children. This does not mean abandoning the single subsidy but, in addition, a deduction should be reintroduced of 10,000 euros per year for each dependent child (now 950 euros up to the age of 21) until the end of their studies, including university ones”, explains Massimo Bitonci, undersecretary of the Ministry of Business with participation in the League. Massimo Garavaglia, senator and chairman of the Finance Committee, has also supported the measure: “Reducing taxes for those who have more children seems to us the best option to protect the birth rate and families.”
Italy is not the only country in the European Union with a low birth rate. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) on the Demography of Europe, it is followed by Spain, which registered a rate of 7.1 births per 1,000 inhabitants in 2020, while the EU average stood at 9.1 per 1,000 .
However, while Hungary has sold this law following an anti-immigration line, the transalpine country aims the opposite with its contrary plan: without more immigration Italy will become poorer and more indebted.
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