In Italy, the need to bring the public accounts back into balance is developing with different intensity in the individual expenditure items. In some cases, the cuts hit more strongly precisely those sectors which, given their importance in favoring the development of the economy, should, on the contrary, have benefited from greater attention.
Between 2007 and 2011, the total per capita expenditure of the Italian public administrations net of interest on the debt increased by almost 5%. In the same period, per capita expenditure on education, with reference to the population aged between 0 and 29, decreased by 5,5%.
For education they are spent every year 3.700 euros for each citizen in the 0-29 age group. In Germany it rises to 4.400, in France to 5.000, in Belgium to 5.800, up to almost 9.400 in Denmark. The only country with a lower value than Italy is Spain with just under 3.400 euros.
However, the limited investment in training does not only concern public administrations, but also affects family budgets. In 2012, households spent 9,4 billion euros on education, allocating less than 1% of their total consumption to this chapter.
Every year, an Italian family spends more than 800 euros in the communications sector, while allocating less than 400 to education. Statistics on tax revenues also tell us that in 2012 the proceeds from the lot amounted to over 6 billion euros, more than 65% of the amount that families have decided to allocate to education.
