Present Population
According to the last census, on 25 October 1981, the population of Italy was 56,556,911, which by the end of 1985 had increased to 57,202,345, with a density of 190 inhab./sq.km. This amounts to an increase of 645,434 in the years 1981-85, little over two third of which stems from natural growth (birth-rate higher than death-rate), the remainder reflecting population movement, which has been positive for more than a decade.

The first statistics indicate that natural growth in 1986 has diminished slightly, but this will be partly compensated by population shift, and by the end of the year, Italy's population should not vary significantly, and will be close to zero growth.

The immediate cause of this (considering that the birth-rate is now 9,) appears to be consequent to the lower marriage rate, down from 6.7 in 1975 to 5.2 in 1985, in itself a reflection of a change in mentality and behaviour of the population, which structurally is now on the way to becoming elderly, with an increase in the older age groups (at the 1981 census, 17.5% were over sixty). However, such a low annual average increase had not been seen since the years of the First World War. In the century after unification (1861-1961), it was roughly 7%; at the first general census (December 1861), the population resident within the frontiers then defined was 26,328,000, which had almost doubled (50,624,000) at the October 1961 census.

The first real drop in the average annual increase (4.4%) came in the years 1971-81, though in effect, the decisive turning point was 1975, with the start of the serious world economic crisis.