Italy remains a divided country, where millions of people continue to live in absolute poverty. That’s right, and according to the new ISTAT 2024 report on poverty, there are over 2.2 million families who are unable to afford the essentials for a dignified life – around 8.4% of the total – equal to 5.7 million individuals, or 9.8% of residents.
Among these, we note the sad record of 1.3 million minors in serious economic difficulty. Numbers that remain almost unchanged compared to 2023, but which tell of a firm, immobile reality, where poverty is now rooted.
Once again, the South is the most affected area: here over one in ten families lives in absolute poverty. Followed by the North-West (8.1%) and the North-East (7.6%), while the Center records the lowest incidence (6.5%). But on a numerical level, almost 40% of poor families live in the South, demonstrating a territorial gap that continues to widen.
Istat also reports a worsening in the Islands, where the incidence rose from 11.9% to 13.4% in just one year.
Children are still the most vulnerable
Poverty especially affects the little ones. In 2024, over 1.28 million children — 13.8% of the total — live in families that cannot afford essential expenses. It is the highest value recorded since 2014. The situation is particularly critical in the South, where one in six children grows up in conditions of absolute poverty.
Large families suffer the most: among those with five or more members, one in five lives in poverty.
Among couples with three or more children, the percentage rises to 19.4%, while for single-parent families (often single mothers with young children) the incidence is 11.8%.
Young adults are no better off either: between the ages of 18 and 34, more than one million people are in absolute poverty.
For many, job insecurity and high rents make it impossible to build a stable future.
Education and work remain the real barriers to poverty
Education continues to be a fundamental bulwark. Among families in which the reference person has at least a high school diploma, the incidence of poverty drops to 4.2%. But if the qualification stops at middle school, the risk triples (12.8%), and rises to 14.4% for those who only have a primary school diploma.
Unfortunately, work is not always enough to save oneself. Among families in which the reference person is a worker, one in six (15.6%) is poor.
Those who work as clerks or managers fall to 2.9%.
And for those who don’t have a job, the situation is dramatic: 21.3% of families with unemployed people live in absolute poverty.
A poverty that remains invisible
Behind every number there is a story: a rent that is too high, a mortgage that you can no longer pay, a precarious job, an increasingly empty refrigerator. And while the data remains “stable”, in daily reality thousands of families oscillate between dignity and survival every month.
Poverty in Italy is not growing, but it is not decreasing either. And as long as it remains confined to statistics, without becoming a real political and social priority, it will continue to be the deepest wound of a country that is unable to take care of its poorest.
