Caritas, more and more poor people in Italy, the greatest increase in requests for help in the North, +77%.

There are more than 5.6 million absolute poor in Italy. This is recalled in the third national statistical report 2025 by Caritas Italy. "Istat," reads the report, "notes that almost one resident in ten lives in a state of absolute poverty (9.7% of the population). Today there are a total of 5 million 694 thousand absolute poor, for a total of 2 million 217 thousand families, who do not have the necessary resources for a dignified life, i.e. unable to access a basket of essential goods and services, such as adequate food, clothing, housing".

The report points out that in the European context "21% of the population lives in a condition of risk of poverty or social exclusion; this is more than 93 million individuals - more than one European in five - who experience conditions of severe material/social deprivation or who are penalised on the income front or by a condition of low work intensity. Italy is the seventh country in terms of the incidence of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion (at 23.1%, up from 22.8% in 2023): only Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Spain, Latvia and Lithuania record higher values".in 10 years +62.6% assisted, from the North +77% requests for help

The Caritas italiana report indicates that in the last 10 years the increase in the number of people assisted by Caritas has been 62.6 per cent. "The territories with the most marked increase in requests for help," it is stressed, "are those in northern Italy (+77%), followed by those in southern Italy (+64.7%). These trends highlight the cumulative effect of the multiple crises that have affected the country in recent years: from the 2008 financial crisis, to the sovereign debt crisis, to the Covid-19 pandemic and recent international tensions'. Compared to 2023, 'the number of assisted persons has increased by 3 per cent'.

Overall 'in 2024,' the report goes on to say, 'the number of people welcomed and supported by the Listening Centres and computerised services of the Caritas network in Italy was 277,775. This is a number that corresponds to as many family units, since the intervention of operators and volunteers always aims to meet the needs of the entire family. The information comes from 3,341 services, active in 204 dioceses (equal to 92.7% of Italian dioceses) and distributed in all 16 ecclesiastical regions, representing about half of the structures promoted and/or managed by diocesan and parish Caritas. The network's help reached about 6 per thousand of the households living in Italy and about 12 per cent of the households in absolute poverty'.