Noel 2021 newborns dropped to 400,249, a 25% drop compared to the figure recorded just ten years earlier. We’re having fewer and fewer children, and it’s really worth wondering what are the reasons superficial and deep. We are having fewer and fewer children, to the point that, plausibly, there will come a day when a child being born will truly be a more unique than rare event. This is how the short film tells it Adam – 2050, on the last child born in Italy. A short that throws the homonymous project, promoted by Plasmon in collaboration with Fondazione per la Natalità: a platform open to the public and private to collect concrete proposals for the next edition of the States General of the Natality (scheduled in May).
Is the Italian population destined to disappear?
The demographic decline in our country is truly alarming if the New York Times was able to title “Is Italy destined to disappear?”. The birth crisis is in fact among the most serious in Europe. So much so that there is even talk of a “silver tsunami”: a in front of very few children there are instead many elderly Italians. Certainly due to the low birth rate, but also due to the flight of young people abroad, the scarce (yes) immigration and the increase in life expectancy. Encouraging families to have children is therefore a social and vital objective for our country. Newborns are needed by the whole of societyand it sounds bad but it’s like this: both from an economic point of view and for the sustainability of the pension system (Today’s active workers support today’s retirees, and in Italy the ratio between active and retired workers is dramatically worsening). So what to do?
The reasons for the falling birth rate in Italy
Based on research Children – an expensive wealth commissioned by Plasmon and conducted by Community Research & Analysis under the direction of Daniele Marini (University of Padua) on a representative sample of the national population, economic insecurity is a determining factor in the fall in the birth rate. Italians experience the current context as highly “uncertain” (53.7%) and problematic, such as to instill “fear” for the future (37.3%).
Despite the scarcely reassuring economic and social situation, more than one Italian out of two (57.4%) has at least one child and a third of them would like to have more children (34.3%). Among those who do not have children (42.6%) however, 40.4% would like to have one.
Costs, work and family organization
The reasons why the Italians who would like them give up having children are related to economic (costs), working (fear of losing your job) and organizational (lack of services for families). These factors are indicated by more than one out of two Italians (53.5%). On the other hand, the personal sphere (in any case a significant 40.9%) and that linked to health (36.4%) are less relevant.
Analyzing the details of the reasons that fall within the economic and working sphere, according to Italians, the costs to be incurred to maintain children are the main reason that drives people not to have children (69.2%). Particularly noteworthy is also the fear of losing your job or having negative professional consequences (60.2%) and the lack of services for families with children (55.1%).
Corporate welfare in support of parenthood
Adamo was launched yesterday in Milan in the presence of Minister for the Family, Birth Rate and Equal Opportunities, Eugenia Maria Roccellaand the Councilor for Economic Development and Labor Policies of the Municipality of Milan, Alessia Cappello.
The project aims to create opportunities to give continuity to the recent ones trade union agreements in favor of parenting in the company, such as the extension of paternity leave to 60 days instead of the 10 days guaranteed by law. Present at the presentation, too D-valuewhich brings the voice of companies and good practices in place to facilitate the work-life balance and the return of the parents after the birth.
The birth rate, a social issue
Economics is not, of course, the only reason why fewer babies are born. And it would be a huge mistake to dismiss a complex issue with many facets like the birth crisis in this way. But it sure is giving birth and raising a child is very expensive and it is the duty of a State to support families in this process. Of course, there are bonuses for families, from the asylum bonus to the single allowance, to the municipal mothers bonus. There are parental leave and paternity leave, in addition to maternity leave. But, evidently, they are not enough. And it’s not just a problem for couples who would like a child but, on balance (literally) they don’t feel like it.
More and more, the birth rate «it is the new social question, the challenge for the future of the country», as Gigi De Palo, President of the Foundation for Natality said, who has even set a goal to be achieved: «Quota 500 thousand new born between now and 2033».
The family at the center: the Meloni government’s maternity plan
The Meloni government put the question at the center of its programme, and the Minister for Equal Opportunities and the Eugenia Maria Roccella family reiterated it «We are working on an important maternity planbecause it is women’s freedom of being mothers without giving up one’s personal and professional fulfilment the key to getting out of the demographic winter».
A plan that also leverages the «involvement of businesses and the networking of good corporate welfare practices. We envisage accompanying measures for mothers, a network of capillary services, a proximity welfare which is also an investment in the future, a code of ethics for businesses”. The goal, in this case, is not a number but the creation of «a new cultural climate».
Services, concessions, adequate salaries
Therefore, as Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan, which according to Istat data is the second most expensive city in Italy, after Bolzano, for families: «We need services, concessions, adequate salaries that are supportive and helpful in managing the family life of couples who decide to have children». Putting around the same table those who have the opportunity to do something important for the country then becomes a tool, made available by Plasmon, to try to do it, “with the goal” defined by Konstantinos Delialis, Plasmon’s Managing Director Italy, “to be able to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to become parents. Naturally, «if they wish».
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