Italy's population deficit worst ever, Istat report finds

Births fell by 3.7% as deaths slipped by 2%

(ANSA) Rome, June 16 - Italy's negative population deficit reached its worst ever level in 2013 with births falling by 3.7% as the number of deaths declined by 2%, the official Istat statistics office said Monday. In all 514,308 new births were registered on the peninsula last year (some 20,000 less than in 2012) while there were 600,744 deaths (12,000 less than in 2012), yielding a negative "natural balance" of 86,436, the worst such demographic mismatch recorded in Italy, Istat said in a report.

As many as 9.2 million, or some 15% of the population, live in 12 cities with more than 250,000 inhabitants, the report found. Rome and Milan together have some 4.2 million residents (2,863,322 in the capital and 1,324,169 in Milan).

Italy's foreign population now amounts to 1,052,000 foreign citizens resident in the country with their percentage in cities ranging from 3.1% in Bari to 17.4% in Milan. The "natural balance" is negative or close to zero in all the 12 biggest cities, according to Istat, amounting to minus 12 people in Palermo, for example.