Is Italy a canary in the coal mine for the West generally?

This is a country that has lost its will to continue existing:

Fewer babies were born in Italy in 2015 than in any year since the modern state was founded 154 years ago, and the population shrank for the first time in three decades, data showed on Friday.

Adding to the gloomy picture, the number of deaths jumped more than 9 percent over the previous year.

That left Italy with its highest mortality rate since World War Two as life expectancy levels unexpectedly dropped.

With the economy stagnating, the slump in productivity has increasingly affected potential parents as well over the past five years, national statistics office ISTAT said.

"Just as the lack of positive prospects for manufacturers puts a brake on investments, difficulties young couples face, above all with work and housing, hamper their plans to have children," ISTAT said in its annual demographic report.

"A general sense of insecurity at many levels of society" was making people wait longer to have fewer children, ISTAT said. Italy peeped out of recession last year, but growth rates remains weak and joblessness high.

The number of births fell to 488,000 in 2015, down almost 3 percent on the year, while deaths jumped to some 653,000, up 9.1 percent. ISTAT said this increase was particularly marked during the winter months, when the flu virus is most active, and in July, when Italy was hit by a heat wave.

The average age fell to 84.7 years for women from 85 and 80.1 years for men from 80.3 -- the sharpest drop since such records began in 1974.

A case study in malaise.