In Italy 11,1% of families are poor. It is a total of 8 million and 173 thousand people, 2 million 782 thousand families. Istat notes it in the report on Poverty in Italy. Poverty is stable overall but worsens among blue-collar families.
In 2011, poverty in Italy, according to Istat, was stable compared to the previous year for both relative and absolute poverty. Last year 11,1% of households were relatively poor and 5,2% were in absolute terms. The relative poverty threshold for a family of two members is equal to 1.011,03 euros. Poverty affects almost a quarter of households in the South with a relative poverty rate of 23,3% of which 8% are poor among the poor.
The substantial stability of relative poverty compared to 2010 derives from the worsening of the phenomenon for families in which there is no income from work or there are workers - explains Istat - offset by the decrease in poverty among the families of managers or employees. In particular, the incidence of relative poverty increases from 40,2% to 50,7% for families without employment or withdrawn from work and from 8,3% to 9,6% for families with all members withdrawn from work. work, mainly elderly people alone and in couples. Among the latter, the incidence of absolute poverty also increased (from 4,5% to 5,5%).
The south was particularly affected. Almost one family out of four equal to 23,3% was poor in the South in 2011. Of these, 8% was affected by absolute poverty, i.e. with a standard of living that does not allow for the attainment of a minimally acceptable standard of living .
In the report, Istat also highlights how, compared to the stability of relative poverty in the North and Centre, an increase in the intensity of relative poverty is observed in the South: from 21,5% to 22,3%. In this breakdown, the average equivalent expenditure of poor families stands at 785,94 euros (against 827,43 and 808,72 euros in the north and centre. With the exception of Abruzzo, where the value of the incidence of poverty is not statistically different from the national average, in all the other regions of the South, poverty is more widespread than in the rest of the country.The most serious situations are observed among families residing in Sicily (27,3%) and Calabria (26,2%) , where over a quarter of households are poor.
Observing the phenomenon with greater territorial detail, the province of Trento (3,4%), Lombardy (4,2%), Valle d'Aosta and Veneto (4,3%) present the lowest values of the incidence of poverty. Tuscany, Emilia Romagna and Marche (6%), Friuli Venezia Giulia (5,2%) and Piedmont (5,4%) have poverty incidence values below 5,9%.
