2023 recorded a new historic low in births in Italy, now firmly below 400 thousand units, with a decrease of 3.6% compared to the previous year. Women choose not to have children or have fewer than they would like: in the female population of fertile age, conventionally defined as between 15 and 49 years, the average number of children per woman, in fact, is 1.20, showing a decrease 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 1.44[1]. The contraction in the birth rate that has accompanied Italy for decades now also involves the foreign component of the population (in 2023 there will be 3 thousand fewer births compared to the previous year)[2].
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 Sicily confirms itself in 19th and third to last place, as in the last edition. Also this year, 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. .
“In Italy we talk a lot about the birth crisis, but not enough attention is paid to the concrete living conditions of today’s “balancing” 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. We need to intervene in an integrated way on multiple levels. Today the birth of a child represents one of the main factors of impoverishment in our country. We must sanction every form of discrimination linked to maternity, make family audits mandatory and promote the full application of the law on equal pay. It is also necessary to ensure that newborns have access to early childhood education services as well as pediatric care. The European examples underline how, in order for the reforms to have a positive effect on the well-being of families, and therefore indirectly also on fertility, they must be stable. Frequent reforms and reversals of family policies make them unpredictable, unreliable and confusing, with a potentially negative impact on families and women in particular.” said Daniela Fatarella, General Director of Save the Children Italy.
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 job market that still suffers from 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 lower value than the European Union average (65.8% ) by as many as 13 percentage points[3]. The difference between the employment rate of men and women in our country, in the same year, was 17.9 percentage points[4], much more marked than the differences observed at EU27 level (9.4 percentage points) and second, very slightly, only to Greece, where the difference is 18 percentage points. For women, the issue of balancing work and family remains critical for those who carry out unpaid care work in their family.
An indicator of the difficulties that mothers face in reconciling family and work commitments is represented by the number of employed women between the ages of 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%). On the contrary, for men of the same age, the total employment rate is 83.7%, with a variation ranging from 77.3% for those without children, up to 91.3% for those with a minor child and 91.6% for those with two or more.
“In Italy, despite the fact that in recent years we have moved from extemporaneous instruments to structural policies such as the Single Allowance, the risk of one-off measures designed ad hoc for specific targets, such as large families or female employees, remains high . The good news is that compared to 2022 the territorial gaps have decreased and in the special ranking drawn up by Istat for our Mothers’ Index the distance between Basilicata, the last on the list, and the autonomous Province of Bolzano, the region with the best performance, decreased by 7 points. The overall value of Italy as a country system has also increased, a sign of greater awareness on the topic of parenting support after years of public debate. The recent measure which finances around 25 thousand places also goes in this direction[5] in the network of educational services for children, even if we are not yet at the objectives set initially by the PNRR. We must not lower the level of attention, also because with respect to the condition of mothers there remain strong disparities especially between the South and the North of the country” declared Antonella Inverno, Head of Research and Data Analysis of Save the Children Italy.
The Mothers’ Index, region by region
This year the Index of mothers by region is the result of an analysis based on 7 dimensions: Demography, Work, Representation, Health, Services, Subjective Satisfaction and Violence, for a total of 14 indicators from different sources of the national statistical system. The index is the result of a long and fruitful scientific collaboration with the National Institute of Statistics (Istat).[6]
The reference value of the Mothers’ Index is equal to 100. Compared to it, higher values represent a more favorable territory for mothers; on the contrary, lower values show a less “friendly” territory towards them.
In the General Index, Sicily remains in 19th place (91.050), confirming itself as third to last as in the last edition. Also this year, among the most “mother-friendly” regions, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (115,255), Emilia-Romagna (110,530), respectively in the first and second position of the list, stand out at the top of the general index . Immediately behind is Tuscany, which gains one position compared to the last edition (109.239) and stands in third place.
Although compared to the previous year, the Italian situation has improved both from an absolute point of view and from a territorial gap point of view, the regions of Southern Italy continue to all position themselves below the Italian reference value, with some particularly far from the 100 mark. Calabria (92,671), Puglia (92,085), Sicily (91,050), Campania (89,474) and Basilicata (87,441), bringing up the rear, occupy the last places in the General Index with almost no upheavals compared to the last edition . Relegated to the bottom of the Index, these regions more than others suffer from the lack of investments in the area which translate into a structural shortage of services and jobs.
Among the Regions that improved the most compared to the previous year, Lazio went from 13th to 8th place, gaining 5 positions, and Lombardy went from 8th to 4th.
The data also shows that in Italy, while full-time work is more common among men than women, the opposite is true for part-time work. In general in our country only 6.6% of men who work do so part-time, compared to 31.3% of women workers, who in half of the cases (15.4%) suffer an involuntary part-time job. Among those who have children, the percentage of women employed part-time increases significantly (36.7%) compared to those without children (23.5%). Among men, however, the figure goes from 8.7% for those without children to 4.6% for fathers.
