section_path: Demographics
section_name: Demographics
paragraph_text: Demographics
  
  In 2020, Italy had 60,317,116 inhabitants. The population density, of 202 inhabitants per square kilometre (520/sq mi), is higher than most West European countries. However, distribution is uneven: the most densely populated areas are the Po Valley (almost half the population) and the metropolitan areas of Rome and Naples, while vast regions such as the Alps and Apennine highlands, the plateaus of Basilicata, and the island of Sardinia, as well as much of Sicily, are sparsely populated.
  
  Italy's population almost doubled during the 20th century, but the pattern of growth was uneven because of large-scale internal migration from the rural south to the industrial north, a consequence of the Italian economic miracle of the 1950–1960s. High fertility and birth rates persisted until the 1970s, after which they started to decline; the total fertility rate (TFR) reached an all-time low of 1.2 children per woman in 1995, well below the replacement rate of 2.1 and considerably below the high of 5 in 1883. Since 2008, when the rate climbed slightly to 1.4, the number of births has consistently declined every year, reaching a record low of 379,000 in 2023—the fewest since 1861. Although the TFR was expected to reach 1.6–1.8 in 2030, as of 2024, it stood at 1.2.
  
  As a result of these trends, Italy's population is rapidly aging and gradually shrinking. Nearly one in four Italians is over 65. and the country has the fourth oldest population in the world, with a median age of 48 and an average age of 46.6. The overall population has been falling steadily since 2014 and is estimated to have fallen just below 59 million in 2024, representing a cumulative loss of more than 1.36 million people over the span of a decade. According to ISTAT, Italy could lose almost one-tenth of its residents in the next 25 years, with the population set to decline to 54.4 million by 2050. The demographic situation has been described as a national crisis.
  
  From the late 19th century to the 1960s, Italy was a country of mass emigration. Between 1898 and 1914, the peak years of Italian diaspora, approximately 750,000 Italians emigrated annually. The diaspora included more than 25 million Italians and is considered the greatest mass migration of recent times.