Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has tied the country’s severe demographic decline directly to its immigration policy, arguing that higher birth rates among Italians would allow the government to cut back on regular migrant workers needed to fill labor shortages.
Tajani made the comments on May 21, 2026, while speaking at the 17th edition of the Festival del Lavoro at Rome’s La Nuvola Congress Centre.“We have a problem of demographic decline and we must understand if we want to have more children,” he said. “And if we have more children then we can also say: fine, we reduce the number of regular migrants who come to work in our companies, but otherwise we have no workers.”
He pointed out that persistently low fertility rates are increasing demand for foreign labor in Italian companies, while also creating integration challenges and opening the door to irregular immigration. Tajani added that many young Italian professionals are leaving the country for better-paying jobs elsewhere in Europe, further straining domestic businesses.
Tajani, who heads the Forza Italia party, is a key figure in Meloni’s centre-right coalition. Italy’s deepening demographic crisis
Italy is experiencing one of the most acute population declines in Europe. Provisional ISTAT figures for 2025 show:
- The total fertility rate fell to a record low of 1.14 children per woman (down from 1.18 the previous year) — far below the 2.1 replacement level.
- Births dropped to just 355,000, a 3.9 % decline from 2024 and the lowest number since Italian unification in 1861.
- Deaths reached approximately 652,000, creating a natural population deficit of roughly 296,000.
As of January 1, 2026, Italy’s resident population stood at about 58.94 million — stable only because net migration fully offset the natural decline. The native Italian population fell by 189,000 to 53.38 million, while the foreign-resident population grew to 5.56 million (9.4 % of the total).
Without continued net migration of roughly 200,000–300,000 people per year, official projections show the total population shrinking to around 54–55 million by 2050, with a sharply smaller working-age cohort and growing pressure on pensions, healthcare, and economic growth. Tajani’s intervention highlights a central tension in Italian politics: whether the country can reverse its demographic free-fall through pro-natal policies or must continue relying on immigration to keep the economy afloat.