The new Istat data confirm once again Sardinia's negative record in terms of birth rate : not only is the island once again the Italian region with the fewest children, but the numbers reveal that the decline is now increasingly constant and inexorable.

According to the latest report from the National Institute of Statistics "Birth rate and fertility of the resident population", in Sardinia the number of children per woman will in fact have dropped to 0.85% in 2025, compared to 0.91 in 2024.

A long-standing and worrying trend that, while more pronounced on the island, affects all of Italy. On average, in our country, each woman has 1.14 children, compared to 1.18 in 2024. Furthermore, nationwide, births in 2025 were 355,772, approximately 14,000 fewer than in 2024 (-3.8%). A decline appears to continue in 2026: in the period between January and July, births were 196,864 (-1.1% compared to 2025).

Furthermore, the average age of mothers at the birth of their first child is increasing ( Sofia and Leonardo are the most popular names for newborns ), reaching 32 years (in Sardinia, however, the figure rises to 33.6 years). The Italian average is 32.7 years, while 44.1% of births are out of wedlock. In this last category , Sardinia leads the ranking, with the highest percentage of births outside of marriage (59.4%), followed by Lazio (51.7%).

Overall, in 2025 in Italy, 44.1% of children were born out of wedlock, an increase of 0.9 percentage points compared to 2024 and 24.4 percentage points compared to 2008.

(Unioneonline/lf)

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