The Trentino Alto Adige, with a average number of children per woman equal to 1.42, continues to hold the record for the highest fertility in the countryalthough it is among the regions with the greatest negative change compared to 2022 (1.51).
These are the Istat data from which we learn that:
Sicily and Campania follow, with an average number of children per woman of 1.32 and 1.29 respectively (against 1.35 and 1.33 in 2022).
In these three regions, new mothers are on average younger than in the rest of the country: the average age at childbirth in Sicily is 31.7 years; 32.2 years in Trentino-Alto Adige and Campania.
Sardinia continues to be the region with the lowest fertility. Stably placed below the level of one child per woman for the fourth consecutive year, in 2023 it stands at 0.91 children (0.95 in 2022).
Two other regions of the South precede it: Basilicata, where the average number of children per woman drops from 1.10 in 2022 to 1.08 in 2023; Molise remained stable at 1.10.
Sardinia and the Basilicata it is, together with Lazio, three o’clock regions in which the reproductive calendar is more postponed, with average ages at childbirth of 33.2, 33.1 and 33 years respectively.
In the generalized panorama of low and late fertility, extended to all areas of the country, with slight differences between the three divisions, conditions of heterogeneity emerge, even within the same geographical division.
In the South, for example, regions with higher fertility (Sicily, Campania and Calabria) and regions with minimum levels (Sardinia, Basilicata and Molise) coexist.
In the North, three out of four regions of the North-West (Valle d’Aosta/Vallée d’Aoste, Liguria, Piedmont) show a fertility rate below the national average (1.20 children per woman), while all those in the North- east highlight one above.
The Center is more cohesive, where only the Marche, with a rate of 1.17 children (the only one to present a minimum advantage compared to the 1.16 of 2022) stands out slightly from Tuscany, Lazio and Umbria (1.12, 1, 11 and 1.10 children respectively).
Going down to the provincial level, the highest average number of children per woman is recorded in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen (1.56), which however presents a significant decrease compared to 2022 (it was 1.64).
Followed by the Provinces of Gorizia (1.42), Palermo (1.39), Reggio Calabria (1.37), Ragusa (1.36) and Catania (1.36).
All the Sardinian provinces, at the national minimum, have a fertility rate lower than one child per woman: from those of Cagliari and Southern Sardinia (0.86 for both) to those of Oristano (0.93), Sassari (0.95) and Nuoro (0.99).
These are followed by the Province of Massa Carrara (1.02), in the Centre, and that of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola (1.06), in the North.
