Around 97,000 young graduates have emigrated from Italy over the last decade, with a record 21,000 leaving the country last year alone, Istat President Francesco Maria Chelli said as he reported the national statistics agency's annual report at the Lower House on Wednesday.
He said that the decline in the Italian population that started in 2014 continued last year, when it dropèd below the 59 million mark.
"The birth rate continues to fall - in 2024 only 370,000 births were recorded - and fertility has reached a historic low of 1.18 children per woman, hampered by the reduction in the number of women of childbearing age and the increasing postponement of parenthood," Chelli said.
