by: Desri Dillinaco

Declining Birth Rates of Italy

Italy, as we all know, is the world center of the

Catholic Church. Strangely, in spite of its deep-rooted

Catholic culture and tradition, it has today changed into

a nation having the second lowest birth rates in Europe,

next only to Spain. At 1.2 per woman that means one

child per woman, according to Global Agenda Magazine.

It was brought out in an article in April 2004 in the

Sunday Telegraph that Swedens Birth rate was close to

Italys though 50% higher. In order to arrest this

situation, the Italian Government started offering 1,000

euros to every woman who had a second child.

Other traditionally Catholic nations, like Ireland and

France, have the highest and second highest birth rates

in Europe. Even Sweden has a 50% higher birth rate in

comparison to Italy. These increased numbers may be due

to better government-controlled child and health care

facilities as well as incentives for families that have

more children.

Ireland and France, on the other hand, other traditionally

Catholic countries, have the first and second highest birth

rates in Europe. These numbers may be explained by more

generous government-funded child and health care and

benefits for families that have children.

It is a cause of concern that this trend will result in

having a large number of people who are old and there are

only a few people contributing gainfully to the society.

This situation is likely in countries like Russia, Japan,

Italy and other eastern European countries. This

phenomenon of low birth rates is being studied by people

who study social and public policy in Europe.

They believe that in the past, having children was a way

of investing in ones old age security. This meant that

if one had more children he had more hands to help with

farming and the family business as well as more people to

take care of him in his old age. With the introduction of

pension systems where you pay for your own future

security, the older people have become less dependent on

their children for their financial needs and this has had

a major impact on birth rates.

They also feel that since people have to pay higher taxes

to support these kinds of social programmes, they have

lower disposable incomes and less money to meet the

expenses of bringing up more children.

Another cause for the declining birth rate is the fact

that more women are working full-time during their

childbearing years. Child-care programmes of different

countries vary. For example, Norway has better financial

and infrastructure facilities as compared to Italy.

Norwegian day-care centers are government funded and

mothers have the option to work part-time, without

affecting their position at work. They also get longer

maternity leave.

It is important to seriously start thinking as to how the

people of today in Italy will be supported when they grow

old. Nevertheless this problem of low birth rate is

definitely better than the problem that comes with very

high population growth.