Absolute poverty stable in 2021
According to preliminary estimates, in 2021, the incidence of absolute poverty was 7.5% among households (from 7.7% in 2020) and 9.4% among individuals (same value as the previous year): more than 1.95 million households, for a total number of about 5.6 million individuals.
The year 2021 was still marked by the pandemic, but with a strong economic recovery (+6.6% the GDP). Household consumption expenditure, according to the results of the Household Budget Survey, increased (+4.7% in current terms compared to the previous year), without compensating the decline of 2020 and still showing a decrease of 4.7% compared to 2019.
Despite the relevant increase in household consumption expenditure, poverty was therefore broadly stable compared to 2020, due, partly, to a more moderate increase in the expenditure of the poorest households and partly to the recovery of inflation (+1.9% in 2021), net of which the incidence of absolute poverty would have decreased to 7.0% for households and to 8.8% for individuals. In order to better understand the context, it worths to remind the differentiated effects of consumer price growth: in 2021, the HICP Harmonised Index was in fact +2.4% for the poorest households and +1.6% for the wealthiest.
The intensity of absolute poverty, that is the average distance of poor household consumption expenditure from the poverty line, also remained substantially stable compared to the previous year (18.7%), except in the Centre where it reached 17.3% from 16.1% in 2020.