In 2010 in Italy 13,8% of the population lived in poverty. We are talking about eight million and 272 thousand people, including two million and 734 thousand families, according to the numbers released today by Istat. "Substantially stable" data compared to 2009: if 11% of households are "relatively" poor, 4,6% are "in absolute terms".
Relative poverty (with a threshold of 992,46 euros per month) increases among families of five or more members (from 24,9% to 29,9%), among those with aggregate members (from 18,2% to 23% ) and with single parents (from 11,8% to 14,1%). Conditions also worsen in terms of absolute poverty (from 6,6% to 10,4%).
In the South, among families with three or more minor children, the incidence of relative poverty grew between 2009 and 2010 from 36,7% to 47,3%. The figure also grows among families supported by self-employed workers (from 6,2% to 7,8%) or with a medium-high educational qualification (from 4,8% to 5,6%). In the South, the most marked increase is seen for self-employed workers (from 18,8% to 23,6%).
Among families with a high school or university graduate "reference person", absolute poverty also increased (from 1,7% to 2,1%). Istat also notes that among elderly couples with a single income, the share increases from 13,7% to 17,1% for relative poverty and from 3,7% to 6,2% for absolute poverty. In the Centre, the relative poverty condition improves among families with two or more elders (from 10,5% to 7,1%). Absolute poverty decreases for couples under 65 (from 3% to 1,9%).
