ROME – New data released by Italy’s statistics agency’s (Istat) 2021 Demographic Dynamics Report showed a small increase in the birth rate in the last two months of last year, while the number of marriages doubled compared to before the pandemic, Ansa writes. The country’s death rate remains high, however, and overall a natural decrease in population is expected to continue.

 Italy’s population has decreased by 616,000 since before the pandemic began two years ago. Although the country experienced excess deaths in this time period, the decrease is mainly attributed to the long-running demographic trend of death rate exceeding the birth rate.

 The birth rate decreased in the first 10 months of 2021, with January seeing a 13.6 percent drop in births, but the uptick observed in the last two months of the year has provided some optimism, albeit not a full recovery.

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