Poverty in Italy

Istat disseminates the relative and absolute poverty estimations for the households residing in Italy, based on 2009 Households Budget Survey data. Being sample estimations, they are affected by sampling error: small differences can be not statistically significant.

In 2009 the relative poverty incidence was equal to 10.8%, whereas the absolute poverty to 4.7%. Taking into account the sampling error, the phenomenon was stable in comparison with 2008.

The South and the Islands confirmed the incidence levels reached in 2008 (22.7% for relative poverty, 7.7% for absolute poverty) and it showed an increase for the absolute poverty intensity (from 17.3% to 18.8%): the number of absolutely poor households stays almost the same, but their average conditions worsened.

The poverty incidence increased, from 2008 to 2009, among the households with a worker as reference person, both in relative (in the Centre from 7.9% to 11.3%) and in absolute terms (at the national level from 5.9% to 6.9%).