Pope warns against Italy's "demographic winter"
Pope Francis said on Friday the cost of raising children was too high and that parents needed more help if countries such as Italy were to overcome the low birth rates that were undermining their future. Speaking at a conference on Italy's dearth of babies, Francis said polls showed most young people wanted to have children, but were worried about the expense. Speaking at the same event, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Italy had just 404,000 births last year, the lowest since records began and down 30% on 12 years ago, while deaths totalled 746,000, lifted in part by the COVID pandemic.
Source: reuters.com