Poverty in Italy

Absolute poverty

In 2017, the incidence of absolute poverty was 6.9% in terms of residing households (1 million and 778 thousand households) and 8.4% in terms of individuals (5 million and 58 thousand households).

In 2016 the former was 6.3% and the latter 7.9%. The incidence of absolute poverty at the household level increased with respect to 2016; it particularly increased among households in the South and Islands area (from 8.5% in 2016 to 10.3%), and among households with one minor child (from 7.2% to 9.5%). In 2017 the incidence of poverty among individuals increased with respect to 2016 with higher values in the South and Islands area (11.4%, 2 million and 359 thousand persons).

The share of poor households exclusively composed by non-nationals was almost six times higher than that of poor households composed by nationals only (29.2% vs. 5.1%).

Households residing in metropolitan municipalities of the South and Islands area showed worsening signals (incidence of absolute poverty from 5.8% in 2016 to 10,1% in 2017).

The professional condition is a crucial determinant of the absolute poverty incidence that decreases in the households where the reference person is employed (from 6.4% in 2016 to 6.1%) and increases in the households where the reference person is not employed (from 6.1% to 7.7%). Nevertheless, in the households where the reference person is a worker, the incidence of absolute poverty (11.8%) is more than double than in the households where the reference person is retired (4.2%).

Relative poverty

In 2017, the percentage of poor households in relative terms increased with respect to 2016 (12.3% in 2017 from 10.6% in 2016), the same for poor individuals (15.6% in 2017 from 14.0% in 2016). Households in relative poverty were 3 million and 171 thousand, individuals were 9 million and 368 thousand in 2017.