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 , each woman in our country 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%). The decline appears to continue in 2026: between January and July, there were 196,864 births (-1.1% compared to 2025).
Furthermore, the average age of mothers at childbirth is increasing, reaching 32.7 years (in Sardinia, however, it rises to 33.2 years), while 44.1% of children are born out of wedlock. In this last category , Sardinia leads the ranking, with the highest share of children born out of wedlock (59.4%), followed by Lazio (51.7%). Overall, in 2025, 44.1% of children in Italy will be born out of wedlock, an increase of 0.9 percentage points from 2024 and 24.4 percentage points from 2008.
The Istat report also reveals the most popular names for newborns: according to the latest report, the most popular are Sofia and Leonardo.
(Unioneonline/lf)
