Life Expectancy at Birth (2019): 83.0
Maternal Mortality Ratio (per 100,000 live births) (2017): 2
Neonatal Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births) (2020): 2
Probability of Dying from any of Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, Diabetes, Chronic Respiratory Diseases Between Age 30 and Exact Age 70 (%) (2019): 9.0%

Neonatal Mortality Rate (Deaths Per 1,000 Live Births) (2019): 2
Infant Mortality Rate (Deaths Per 1,000 Live Births) (2019): 3
Under-5 Mortality Rate (Deaths Per 1,000 Live Births) (2019):
  Male: 3; Female: 3

Note: “Under-5 mortality rate – Probability of dying between birth and exactly 5 years of age, expressed per 1,000 live births.
“Infant mortality rate – Probability of dying between birth and exactly 1 year of age, expressed per 1,000 live births.
“Neonatal mortality rate – Probability of dying during the first 28 days of life, expressed per 1,000 live births.”

Source: United Nations Children’s Fund, The State of the World’s Children 2021: On My Mind – Promoting, protecting and caring for children’s mental health, UNICEF, New York, October 2021.

Maternal Deaths Per 100,000 Live Births, 2020: 5

“Despite the sharp decline in life expectancy of more than one year caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 people in Italy continued enjoying one of the highest life expectancies in the EU (Figure 1). Before the pandemic, gains in life expectancy had slowed considerably between 2010 and 2019, particularly among women (increasing by only about one year between 2010 and 2019 compared with about two years in the previous decade) but also to a lesser extent among men. While the causes of this slowdown are not fully understood, it was in part related to an increase in mortality rates from some respiratory diseases among older people.

“Preliminary estimates show a loss of 1.2 years in life expectancy between 2019 and 2020. This was higher in the north of Italy compared to the centre and the south and islands, as COVID-19 predominantly affected the northern part of the country.”

Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2021), Italy: Country Health Profile 2021, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.

“Although less pronounced than in most other EU countries, inequalities in life expectancy by socioeconomic status are still significant in Italy. As shown in Figure 2, 30-year-old men with lower levels of education live on average 3.6 years less than those with the highest level. This longevity gap by education is smaller among women, at about 1.5 years. These gaps can be explained at least in part by differing levels of exposure to various risk factors and unhealthy lifestyles, including higher smoking rates and poorer nutritional habits among men and women with lower levels of education.

“Geographical inequalities in life expectancy remain significant in Italy. In 2019, life expectancy for women born in the southern region of Campania was 2.7 years lower than that of women born in the northern autonomous province of Trento. Men born in Campania were expected to live 2.2 years less than men born in the central region of Umbria. The gap in geographical inequalities narrowed slightly between 2010 and 2019, and is expected to have narrowed even more in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic had a greater impact on the northern regions.”

Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2021), Italy: Country Health Profile 2021, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.

“Since 2011, amenable mortality rates have been among the lowest in Europe, and in 2019, Italy had the sixth lowest rate among EU countries. In the Italian regions, the best performers are all located in the centre-north. In 70% of cases, amenable mortality rates have been linked to colon and rectal cancers (19.09%), cerebrovascular diseases (18.23%), ischaemic heart disease (17.06%), and breast cancer (16.66%) (ONSRI, 2020).¹⁶ In the past 30 years, death rates for cardiovascular diseases have decreased by more than half and for neoplasms by almost a third. However, in parallel, dementia and Alzheimer’s diseases are increasing along with chronic respiratory diseases, hypertension, influenza and pneumonia (Monasta et al., 2019). Behavioural risk factors and demographic changes seem to play an important role in these trends.

“Following reductions between 2011 and 2019 in ischaemic heart disease,¹⁷ lung cancer, accidental deaths, suicide and alcohol-related diseases, preventable mortality values also are all well below the EU average, given the lower prevalence of risk factors, effective treatments and lower incidence of these health conditions.”

“Italy’s low levels of preventable deaths can also be explained, at least in part, by solid public health policies that have been implemented from the early 2000s. A nationwide indoor smoking ban in public places and workplaces was implemented in 2005 (Mele & Compagni, 2010), and increases in cigarette prices were subsequently enforced although they remain low compared with other European countries. In 2013, stricter rules on tobacco access among young people were also introduced: the minimum purchase age was raised to 18 years; higher fines were imposed on tobacco retailers who sold cigarettes to minors; automatic age-detection systems were installed in tobacco vending machines; a smoking ban was extended to the outdoor premises of schools; and a ban on sales of electronic cigarettes to minors was implemented. In addition, in 2016, a new law regulated the combination of images and warnings on cigarette packs and introduced a smoking ban in cars (in the presence of pregnant women and minors) and in the outdoor premises of hospitals. However, it is worth noting that according to national data, the number of daily smokers grew steadily during the COVID-19 pandemic, rising from 22% of the adult population in April 2020 to 24% in November 2020, a value that then increased by more than 1 million people from November 2020 to May 2021 (26.2%), which is equivalent to a rise of over two percentage points in the share of the Italian population smoking regularly (ISS, 2022).

“Alcohol consumption – people (aged 11 and over) having at least one alcoholic drink during the year – was stable from 2019 to 2020 (66.8% and 66.4% of the population, respectively) (ISTAT, 2020e); a similar trend is found for daily consumption, while consumption out of meal times continues to increase. Year-over-year alcohol consumption is strongest in the north-eastern part of the country. Among over-25 year olds, the percentage of alcoholic beverage consumers increases as the level of education increases. This is the case especially for women: in 2020, among those with an elementary school qualification, 41.6% consume alcohol at least once a year, a quota that rises to 74.3% among university graduates (Ministero della Salute, 2021a).”

Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems in the US and sixteen other nations.

Page last updated March 2, 2023 by Doug McVay, Editor.