Europe | Baby gap

Why there are so few babies in southern Europe

It’s mostly economics

BARCELONA, SPAIN - 2020/04/26: Parents walk with their children on the street during the first day of allowing kids to move out for one hour with an adult.First day on the street, after 42 days of confinement, for children under 14 accompanied by an adult. The rides are limited to one hour and a maximum distance of one kilometre due to the contagion of the Covid 19. (Photo by Paco Freire/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Image: Getty Images
|FLORENCE, MADRID AND VALLETTA

The Museo degli Innocenti in Florence has an unusual name and hosts an unusual display: a collection of small broken objects, mostly medallions. They were split in two when a baby was delivered to Florence’s hospital for foundlings. Half the object, known as a segnale di riconoscimento, was kept at the hospital—in reality, a children’s home—while the other went to the mother. Should she wish to reclaim the child, she would have proof it was hers. Many of the children were born out of wedlock. But others were from families without the means to feed another mouth.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Baby gap”

From the February 18th 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Europe

Participants of the II Black March of Wolyn 1943 are walking through the streets of the city on the 81st anniversary of the Wolyn massacre in Krakow, Poland, on July 11, 2024.

A dispute over old war crimes strains Polish-Ukrainian relations

The beneficiary is Russia

The leader of the far-right Freedom party (FPOe) Herbert Kickl leaves after talks with Austria's President on January 6, 2025 at the presidential Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria

Austria could soon have a first far-right leader since 1945

Herbert Kickl of the Freedom Party could be the next head of government



Europe has lots of lithium, but struggles to get it out of the ground

Its targets for strategic autonomy look hard to meet

Spain’s government marks 50 years since Franco died

Opponents say it is the birth of democracy that should be commemorated

How extremist politics became mainstream in France

Jean-Marie Le Pen paved the way for his daughter, Marine