ROME, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Italy's fertility rate fell to the lowest level ever recorded in 2024, the country's main statistical entity said on Monday.

According to Italy's National Statistics Institute, known as ISTAT, around 370,000 births were registered in Italy last year, a decrease of 2.6 percent from the previous year.

The death rate also declined, ISTAT said, falling by 3.1 percent last year to 651,000. That means there were 281,000 more deaths than births in the country in 2024, pushing the country's average life expectancy to 83.4 years - among the highest in the world - an increase of nearly five months compared to 2023.

In broader terms, there were six births and 11 deaths per 1,000 residents, according to ISTAT data.

The data showed that the country's overall fertility rate in 2024 fell to 1.18 children per woman, well below the replacement level of 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population. That rate is just below the previous record of 1.19, set in 1995.

ISTAT said that the downward population trend, combined with an increase in the number of people living alone, has reduced the average family size in Italy to 2.2 people, down from 2.6 two decades ago.

Italy's overall population decline was partially offset by the arrival of 166,000 new legal foreign residents in 2024. That pushed the foreign-born segment of the population to 5.31 million, ISTAT said. Enditem

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