The number of people living in extreme poverty or those who cannot afford to buy a consumer basket of necessary goods and services was 4.7 million last year, while in 2006 there were only 1.7 million of them, Istat, the National Statistics Agency, reported. This is 7.9% of the population, many of which are concentrated in the southern regions of the country.
As Italy experienced the deepest, and then the longest, recession since World War II between 2008 and 2013, more than a quarter of the country's industrial production has been destroyed. During the same period, unemployment also increased, and in 2014 this indicator rose to 13% from a low level of 5.7% in 2007, unemployment for the last time was at the level of 11.3% in May.
Italy has faced a low fertility rate for decades: only 1.35 children per woman, compared to an average of 1.58 in the EU from 28 countries as of 2015, the last year for which comparable data are available.
"The poverty report shows how senseless it is to wonder why there are fewer newborns in Italy," said Gigi De Palo, head of the Italian Forum of Family Associations. "Birth of a child makes people poor; children are no longer perceived as a common good in Italy."
The number of absolutely poor has grown last year in the younger classes, reaching 10% in the group of people between the ages of 18 and 34. The indicator also fell among the elderly to 3.8% in the age group 65 years and older, the Istat’s report showed.
source: newsline.com
As Italy experienced the deepest, and then the longest, recession since World War II between 2008 and 2013, more than a quarter of the country's industrial production has been destroyed. During the same period, unemployment also increased, and in 2014 this indicator rose to 13% from a low level of 5.7% in 2007, unemployment for the last time was at the level of 11.3% in May.
Italy has faced a low fertility rate for decades: only 1.35 children per woman, compared to an average of 1.58 in the EU from 28 countries as of 2015, the last year for which comparable data are available.
"The poverty report shows how senseless it is to wonder why there are fewer newborns in Italy," said Gigi De Palo, head of the Italian Forum of Family Associations. "Birth of a child makes people poor; children are no longer perceived as a common good in Italy."
The number of absolutely poor has grown last year in the younger classes, reaching 10% in the group of people between the ages of 18 and 34. The indicator also fell among the elderly to 3.8% in the age group 65 years and older, the Istat’s report showed.
source: newsline.com