Births in Italy set to drop further in 2024.

Italy's birth rate fell by 3.4 per cent in 2023 with 379,890 births, 13,000 fewer than the previous year, according to data released by national statistic office ISTAT on Monday.

The number of births in Italy in 2023 is the lowest since records began in 1861, after Italian unification, with the figure falling for the 15th year in a row.

Roughly six babies were born last year per 1,000 residents, ISTAT said, with the downward trend set to continue in 2024.

Provisional data for the first seven months this year shows that there were 4,600 fewer births than in the first seven months of 2023, according to the ISTAT report.

This represents a fall of 34.1 per cent from 2008 - the last year Italy saw an increase in the country's birth rate - when 576,000 babies were born.

Italy's plumetting birth rate is mirrored by a rapidly ageing population, with figures released by ISTAT last December showing that for every child under six there are more than five elderly people.