The latest figures, part of a report released by Italian statistics agency ISTAT on Friday, indicate that it were as if a city the size of Florence had disappeared last year.
Italy set new records in 2020 with the lowest number of births since its unification in 1871, the highest number of deaths since the end of World War II and the largest gap between the number of deaths and births since the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.
The overall population fell by 384,000, or 0.6 per cent, when compared to a year earlier.
In 2020, Italy’s migratory balance became negative for the first time since 1987, with emigrants surpassing immigrants by 42,000.
Marriages fell by 47.5 per cent in 2020 compared to a year earlier and births fell by 3.9 per cent, with constraints on mobility and economic effects playing a central role.
According to ISTAT, “in addition to the increased deaths as a direct consequence of the virus, there are additional repercussions that [emergency health] measures aimed at curbing the spread of contagion have had on people’s lives”, such as travel restrictions, the loss or temporary suspension of employment and restrictions on how many people can attend ceremonies.
Italy was the first European country to be hit by the pandemic in February 2020, and has recorded more than 106,000 deaths related to coronavirus in the past 13 months.
