Country Comments

Italy has five times the population than can be sustained by its consumption of renewable resources. In its favor toward achieving a sustainable population level has been a persistently low fertility rate of approximately 1.4 children per woman since the 1990s. If it wasn't for a liberal immigration of 150,000 new citizens a year recently to as many as 300,000 in the mid 2000s population levels in the country would have reduced significantly more.

With misplaced fear of the supposed negative consequences of declining population levels, the government in June 2020 passed the “Family Act to support parenting, combat the falling birth rate, encourage the growth of children and young people, and the help parents reconcile family life with work, especially for women," Premier Giuseppe Conte told reporters after parliament passed the bill.

Some of the biggest environmental issues for Italy cited by the OECD were air pollution, clean water, waste management and habitat loss. Further reduction in population levels will relieve each of these environmental problems.