The sample survey of Bankitalia on the financial statements of Italian households in 2010, published this morning, draws the multifaceted and complex picture of Italy and its families at the time of the crisis. What emerges is a portrait of a country in which the average income is lower, in real terms (that is, in effective availability of spendable income) than that of the early XNUMXs, and in which the concentration of wealth and the share of poor individuals are increasing.
in 2010 the median annual household income, net of income taxes and social contributions, was equal to 32.714 euros. In real terms, this figure marks a slight increase compared to that of 2008, after the strong contraction (3,4%) of the previous two years, but it is 2,4% lower than that found in 1991.
Il average equivalent income, i.e. the income that each individual would need, if he lived alone, to have the same standard of living as in the family in which he lives, it stood at 18.914 thousand euros per individual, a value 0,6 per cent lower in real terms than that observed with the 2008 survey.
On the other hand, the share of poor individuals in Italy rose by a net percentage point compared to 2008, to 14,4%, that is, the share of those with an equivalent income of less than half the median. This means that almost one individual out of six in Italy lies below this threshold, a percentage that jumps up to 40% if we are talking about foreign citizens.
The net wealth of Italian households, given by the sum of real assets and financial assets net of mortgages and other debts, it has a median value in 2010 of 163.875 euros, also by virtue of the fact that 68,4% of Italian families are owners of the houses in which they live (a figure that decreased by 0,3% compared to 2008, as did that of rental and hire-purchase houses, a decrease offset by the increase in the number of usufruct or free-of-charge families, but a clear increase over the last 30 years and higher than in European averages). This However, wealth is highly concentrated, given that it is owned by 45,9% (compared to 44,3% in 2008) by the 10% of the richest families.
Going further into these data and drawing up an internal mapping of Italian families, we discover that the median household income is higher in households whose head of household is a graduate, self-employed or manager, aged between 45 and 64, and that it is higher in families residing in the North than in those residing in the South and on the Islands. The income of families whose head is a foreign citizen is on the other hand about 45% lower than that of Italian families.
The negativity of families is also growing, 30% of which declare themselves in difficulty in covering expenses with their incomeand, by increasing the number of indebted households, increased to 27%.
