Italy's birth rate hit its highest level in years in 2006 although it still remains below the European Union average, according to data issued on Thursday by national statistics bureau Istat.
In its annual population report, the bureau said the average number of births per Italian female rose to a 16-year high of 1.35 last year.
However, the figure was lower than the EU average of 1.52 and well below the replacement level of 2.2 for a stable population.
At one time, Italy had the highest birth rate in Western Europe and in 1970, Italian women had an average 2.5 children each.
Istat said the birth rate among foreign women residing in Italy was much higher than their Italian counterparts at 2.41 children each.
Overall, more than 500,000 babies were born in Italy last year, the biggest number in 12 years and an increase of 6,000 over the previous year, Istat reported.
Births among the immigrant population accounted for 10.3% or 58,000, it said.
Looking at the population as a whole, the bureau said that the number of people legally resident in the country grew by almost 400,000 last year with immigrants making up most of the increase.
Istat said Italy's population stood at 59,131,287 in December 2006 compared to 58,751,711 a year previously.
Women still outnumber men with more than 30.4 million females currently resident in the country compared to 28.7 million males.
Istat said that the 0.6% increase in Italy's resident population was mainly due to immigrants.
It said that there were now five foreigners for every 100 Italian nationals compared to 4.5 per 100 in 2005.
The report highlighted regional variations in the immigrant population.
It showed that the majority of legal immigrants lived in central and northern Italy, where the ratio was between 6.4-7.2 foreigners for every 100 Italians.
In the south, the corresponding ratio was 1.6 per 100, Istat said.
The bureau also underscored the high level of domestic migration, with some 1.5 million people moving from the south to the north in 2006.
In other comments, Istat said the only big cities which saw major swells in the number of legal residents last year were Rome and Verona, with increases of 8,226 and 1,304 respectively.
Naples, by contrast, lost more than 9,100 residents, the bureau said.
