Varför föds det så få barn i Italien?

Italy's health minister has outlined plans to double child benefit to combat what she described as an "apocalyptic" decline in the country's birth rate.

Beatrice Lorenzin said the monthly bonus for lower income families should be twice the current €80 (£60; $90).

Ms Lorenzin also called for higher payments for second and subsequent children to encourage big families.

Just 488,00 babies were born in Italy in 2015, fewer than in any year since the modern state was founded in 1861.

The controversy surrounding Italy’s first fertility day, a day designed to encourage Italians to have children, was reignited on Wednesday following accusations that the cover of a booklet published by the health ministry illustrating good and bad personal habits was racist.

The cover of the booklet showed two white couples, arms draped around one another, exhibiting behaviour that was good for fertility, while the image that represented poor habits showed a black person among a group doing drugs.
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An article in La Repubblica said the contrast between the “good” and “bad” images smacked of racism and the booklet was criticised on social media outlets as being racist.

The accusation was rejected by health minister Beatrice Lorenzin, a member of the New Centre Right, a conservative coalition partner in prime minister Matteo Renzi’s centrist government, who is known for her opposition to parental rights for same-sex parents. She has been an outspoken critic of surrogacy, which is illegal in Italy.

“The photos represent a homogeneity of people, as is the multi-ethnic society in which we live,” the health ministry said in a statement. “Racism is in the eye of the beholder.”

Italy saw a total of 485,780 babies born in 2015, down 3.3 percent from the year before, the national Italian statistics institute Istat said on Monday.

The number undercuts a preliminary estimate of 488,000 for the year that was made in February - a figure that was already presented as the lowest since the unification of Italy in 1861.

Istat said the decline stemmed mainly from a drop in the number of children born to Italian parents. The institute attributed this reduction both to a fall in the number of Italian women of reproductive age and their waning inclination to have children. The number of marriages also fell further in 2015, Istat said, which had an added negative impact on the birthrate.

Italy's birthrate is continuing the downward trend which has alarmed the country's Health Ministry over the past few years, with just 474,000 babies born in 2016 - a historic low.

Birth numbers in 2016 surpassed the previous year's record of 486,000, national statistics agency Istat revealed on Monday in its annual demographic report.
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According to Istat, the average Italian woman has 1.34 children, a lower number than last year, though it is higher among non-nationals (1.95).

ISTAT said fertility rates fluctuated wildly between the industrialized north and the poorer south.

On the island of Sardinia, women had 1.07 children on average, while the only province where births rose was in Bolzano, near the border with Austria, where the fertility rate was 1.78.

If applied to the whole country, Bolzano's figures would put Italy among the most fertile countries in the European Union, ISTAT said, whereas with Sardinia's rate, "dangerously close to one child per woman, Italy would be in last place in Europe, and likely the world."

Kultur:
Sardinierna (Sarderna*) har bevarat sin särart och kultur under århundranden, genom att dra sig tillbaka i inlandets bergstrakter. Det finns många unika kulturyttringar inom dans, musik, sång och litteratur. Sardinien och sardinierna (sarderna*) är ett typiskt exempel på att det egna aldrig blir tillräckligt fint, ty det var en tysk språkforskare, Leopold Wagner, som började systematiskt katalogisera det sardiska språket . Tack vare den unge danske folklivsforskaren Andreas Fridolin Weis Bentzon har många mästare i flöjt instrumentet Launeddas kunnat räddas till eftervärlden. Den unge kandidaten och forskaren Bentzon åkte runt på en motorcykel med sidovagn och spelade in musik. Tack vare sitt kunnande och sympati lyckades han få god kontakt med dessa Sardiniens ”bluesmen”. Kandidat Bentzon är fortfarande en mytologisk romantisk person i den sardiska kulturen, tyvärr blir de allra bästa ibland tvingade att lämna detta vårt jordeliv i förtid. Sardiska är ett helt självständigt språk, som påminner om latin. Det är ganska lakoniskt och mycket mindre retoriskt än andra latinska språk.
Sardinien påminner i mycket Island. Det är 2 st öar, som ligger långt från fastlandet. Ekonomin har traditionellt varit baserad på en herde- och fiskekultur. Denna långa tradition av närvaro i naturen stimulerat en poetisk ådra som som på Island. Det finns ett mycket stort kulturintresse, som uttrycker sig i film, litteratur, teater, opera och musik. År 1926 tilldelades den sardiska författarinnan Grazia Deledda nobelpriset i litteraturhar och idag representerar Marcello Fois den bästa i den sardiska och italienska litteraturen, båda finns att läsa på svenska. I Cagliari finns en av Italiens bästa operahus. Det fanns 10.000 årsabonnemang för några år sedan.