Poverty in Italy

Istat disseminates the relative and absolute poverty estimations for the households residing in Italy, based on data from the 2013 Households Budget Survey. Being sample estimations, they are affected by sampling error: small differences can be not statistically significant.

In 2013 the relative poverty phenomenon was stable in all the geographical areas, the relative poverty incidence was equal to 12.6%, and the absolute poverty incidence to 7.9% and. Taking into account the sampling error, absolute poverty increased from 6.8% to 7.9% (due to the increase in the South and in the Islands, from 9.8% to 12.6%). In the South and Islands area, where the absolute poverty increased, also the relative poverty intensity increased, from 21.4% to 23.5%.

The relative poverty threshold, for a two-member household, was equal to 972.52 Euros (about 18 euros less compared with 2012 threshold).

In 2013 relative poverty worsened for households with four (from 18.1% to 21.7%) and five or more members (from 30.2% to 34.6%), particularly couples with two children (from 17.4% to 20.4%), especially when the children are minors (from 20.1% to 23.1%).

Signals of decrease are registered only in terms of relative poverty, in the North area for singles under 65 (from 2.6% to 1.1%, especially for singles under 35), in the South and Islands area for couples with one child (from 31.3% to 26.9%) and for households headed by a manager or an employee (from 16.4% to 13.6%), even if the incidence stays higher than in 2011.

Absolute poverty increased among households with three (from 6.6% to 8.3%), four (from 8.3% to 11.8%) and five or more members (from 17.2% to 22.1%). The condition worsened among couples with children: from 5.9% to 7.5% for couples with one child, from 7.8% to 10.9% if the children are two and from 16.2% to 21.3% for couples with three or more children, especially when the children are minors.

The absolute poverty also increased among households headed by a person with a low-medium level of education (from 9.3% to 11.1% if the reference person has the middle school, from 10% to 12.1% if illiterate or with the primary education), a worker (from 9.4% to 11.8%) or a person seeking employment (from 23.6% to 28%). The absolute poverty incidence increased among couples with reference person aged 65 years and over (from 4% to 6.1%) and households with two or more elderly (from 5.1% to 7.4%).