Italy

The Italian population, which amounted to 13.4 million people in 1700, rose to 15.5 million and 18.1 million, with an average annual growth rate in the two fifty-year periods of 2.9 and 3.1 per 1,000 respectively. The relative stabilisation of mortality around more normal levels, although they remained quite high, probably contributed to a sustained level of population growth. The Italian economy of the eighteenth century, however, remained heterogeneous. During the Napoleonic period demographic data improve both in respect to quantity and reliability. It is important to note, however, that the process of demographic transition which produced a fall in natality and mortality levels from those prevailing around the mid-nineteenth century to those of today did not occur at the same time and with the same modalities in all areas of the peninsula. In relation to the movement in the birth rate over time certain general trends can be established for the early nineteenth century.