New National Survey Sheds Light on Changing Family Life in Italy
A new survey on 9,000 people in Italy, is providing fresh insights into emerging aspects of family demography, including expectation about the future, experiences with fertility treatments, family complexity and digital dating. The study, coordinated by the Population and Society Unit (UPS) at the University of Florence, is described in a new article published in the International Journal of Population Data Science.
Italy has long been a country of strong family ties, but family life has been changing rapidly in recent decades. Cohabitation has become more common, union dissolution has risen sharply, and the way people meet partners has shifted, with online dating now playing an increasingly central role in relationship formation. While non-marital births have tripled since the early 2000s, fertility has continued to decline, reaching a record low of 1.14 children per woman in 2025, according to Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica).
This decline is happening even though many Italians report wanting more children than they ultimately have — a gap that is among the largest in Europe. At the same time, fertility treatments are playing a growing role, accounting for more than 30% of first births among women aged over 40.
The Age-It Family Demography Survey (Age-It FDS) is a nationally representative, quota-controlled survey of adults aged 18–45 in Italy, conducted using a combination of face-to-face, telephone, and web interviews. The survey collects detailed relationship histories alongside information on partner characteristics, the growing role of digital platforms in meeting partners, and experiences of family complexity, such as parental separation and growing up in non-standard family arrangements.
A dedicated section focuses on fertility histories, including fertility intentions, desired family size, and reasons for postponing or not having children. It also captures experiences with medically assisted reproduction and people's experiences with fertility treatments.
Another key feature of the survey is its focus on how people view their future. Respondents were asked about their expectations regarding work, housing, and financial conditions, as well as emerging forms of uncertainty related to environmental risks and political stability. The survey also collects essential socio-economic information, including education, employment, and income.
Together, these data provide a valuable new resource for researchers studying family dynamics in Italy.
“The Age-It FDS should be viewed not as an endpoint but as a foundational step in building contemporary evidence base for family research in Italy,” the authors explain.
Researchers interested in accessing the data can contact Dr Elisa Brini at the University of Florence (elisa.brini@unifi.it).
Click here to read the full article
The UPS team of the Department of Statistics, Computer Science, Application (DiSIA) of the University of Florence