In Campania, approximately 44 thousand children are born per year, on average, in recent years. Just for statistics, in our region there are approx 61 thousand people passed away, every year. It takes little to understand that the natural balance, unfortunately, is already very unfavorable, practically almost 17 thousand units less. Always for mere statistics, as regards the province of Salernodata updated to 31 December 2022, the birth rate is equal to 7,805 units; On the other hand, 12,585 people passed away. In short, no children are born. This is the real problem, not only for our province. 2023 recorded a new historic low in births in Italy, now firmly below 400 thousand units, with a 3.6% drop compared to the previous year.
Women choose not to have children or have fewer children than they would like: the average number of children per woman is 1.20, showing a decline compared to 2022 (1.24). Very far from the 2010 figure, when the average number of children per woman had reached the relative maximum recorded in the last twenty years, equal to 1,442. The contraction in the birth rate that has accompanied Italy for decades now it also involves the foreign component of the population (in 2023, 3 thousand fewer births compared to the previous year). Italy is also the European country with the highest average age of women at the time of the birth of their first child (31.6 years), with a significant percentage of first births to mothers over 40 (8.9%, lower rate only to that of Spain). The average age of mothers at childbirth remains almost unchanged compared to the previous year (32.5 years in 2023 and 32.4 in 2022).
These are some of the main data contained in the 9th edition of the report “Le Equilibriste, maternity in Italy” by Save the Children – the Organization that has been fighting for over 100 years to save girls and boys at risk and guarantee them a future -, released today a few days before Mother’s Day, which takes stock of the infinite challenges that women in Italy have to face when they choose to become mothers. Like every year, the study also includes the Mothers’ Index, developed by Istat for Save the Children, a ranking of the Italian regions where it is easier for mothers to live. This year too, the Index indicates the Autonomous Province of Bolzano as leading the mother-friendly territories, followed by Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, while Basilicata brings up the rear, preceded at the bottom of the ranking by Campania and Sicily.
If the postponement of motherhood and low fertility are the result of numerous contributing causes, the data reveal that the more women’s participation in the labor market increases, the more the fertility rate increases. An element to take into due consideration in a labor market that is still discounting a very strong gender gap. From the data of the Save the Children Report, it emerges that in Italy the female employment rate (aged 15-64 years) was 52.5% in 2023, a value lower than the European Union average (65.8%) by as many as 13 percentage points. For women, the issue of balancing work and family remains critical for those who carry out unpaid care work in their family. A spy of the difficulties mothers face in reconciling family and work commitments is represented by the number of employed women aged between 25 and 54: compared to a female employment rate of 63.8%, women without children who work reach 68.7%, while only just over half of those with two or more minor children are employed (57.8%).
It is clear and evident that here too, they are recorded marked territorial disparities, to the detriment of the regions of Southern Italy where for women, employment stops at 48.9% for those without children, drops to 42% in the presence of minor children, reaches 40% for women with two or more minor children. Even looking at the data on voluntary resignations after parenthood, it is clear how the birth of a child affects gender inequality in the world of work. It is mainly mothers who resign, with their first child and within the first year of life. In short, in Italy there is a lot of talk about the birth crisis, but not enough attention is paid to the concrete living conditions of mothers who are burdened by almost all of the care work. A country in which mothers are still in too much trouble, still divided between North and South, with regions that are more or less welcoming to women with children. It is incredible to say that unfortunately today the birth of a child represents one of the main factors of impoverishment in our country, when paradoxically with the birth crisis it should instead be the absolute element of wealth for the present and the future. This is why the future of all of us is at risk, let it be clear. Finally, again and only for statistics, how many families are there in the province of Salerno? As of December 31, 2022 they are just over 436 thousand. And the There are currently almost 63 thousand widows, compared to only around 14 thousand widowers. If it were nothing else, women live much longer than men, even in our province.
