Crude birth rate of Italy, 1850-2020
In Italy, the crude birth rate in 1850 was 38.4 live births per thousand people, meaning that 3.8 percent of the population had been born in that year. Apart from some slight fluctuation in the 1860s, between 1850 and the Second World War, Italy's crude birth rate decreased very gradually. 38.9 was the highest recorded figure in 1865, and it decreased to 27.1 in 1930. Over the next 35 years (including the Second World War and Italian Civil War) the birth rate fluctuated, but overall it dropped to 18.6, and then the decline fell consistently to 10.9 in 1985, where it then plateaued. In the 2000s, the crude birth rate did increase in the first decade, to 9.7 in 2010, before dropping again, and it is expected to fall to it's lowest level of 7.6 in 2020.