Istat: population at risk of poverty falls to 22.6% in 2025
Average annual household income (EUR 39,501) grows year-on-year in both nominal (+5.3%) and real (+4.1%) terms
In 2025, data on living conditions in Italia show signs of improvement compared to the previous year. The share of the population at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025 drops to 22.6 per cent (it was 23.1 per cent in 2024), totalling about 13.265 million people. These are individuals who are in at least one of the following three conditions: at risk of poverty, in severe material and social deprivation or low employment intensity. This is what emerges from a report by Istat.
In detail, individuals are considered to be at risk of poverty if they live in households whose net equivalised income in the year preceding the survey year (without imputed or in-kind components) is less than 60 per cent of the median income.
There is a slight increase (5.2% from 4.6% in 2024) in the share of the population in a condition of severe material and social deprivation, i.e. of those who show at least seven signs of deprivation out of the 13 identified by the new Europe 2030 indicator; these are signs related to the presence of economic difficulties such that they cannot afford, for example, unexpected expenses, paying rent, an adequate meal, rather than a week's holiday a year or regular leisure activities outside the home. In 2025, more than 3 million individuals will be in this condition.
In the South, the highest incidence is 38.4%
In 2025, on the other hand, the share of individuals living in labour-intensive households will decrease to 8.2 per cent (from 9.2 per cent in 2024), i.e. households whose members aged between 18 and 64 worked on average less than one fifth of the time they could have done so in the previous year. In absolute terms, this condition involves about 3.873 million people. The decrease in low work intensity is linked to the growth in employment observed during the year and is particularly marked in the North-East (2.8% from 4.3%) and in the Centre (5.5% from 7.8%), among single people under 65 (13% from 15.9%), couples with children (4.8% from 5.6%) and single parents who, while more than double the national average, fall to 18.2% from 19.5% in 2024. The Northeast is confirmed as the distribution with the lowest incidence of risk of poverty or social exclusion (11.3%, it was 11.2% in 2024), while the South is the one with the highest (38.4%, it was 39.2% in 2024).
Who weighs more
Even in 2025, the incidence of the risk of poverty or social exclusion is lower for those living in couples without children, especially for young couples with a reference person under 65 (16%), and higher for single parents (31.6%), couples with three or more children (30.6%) and single people (28.6% if under 65, 29.6% if over 65). For couples with one child, the risk of poverty or social exclusion remains low (17.4%) and below the national average (22.6%), while for couples with two children it rises to 20.6%.
