Italy is in a demographic winter, with a birth rate considerably below the 2.1 rate needed for a stable population. In fact, the birth rate in Italy has fallen for the 15th year in a row and now sits at 1.20 children per woman.

That is, except for Balzano and the Alto Adige-South Tyrol area surrounding it. There, the birth rate has stayed stable for decades, bucking the trend in the rest of the country, and indeed, the trend in most of Western Europe.