Save The Children: 1 in 10 children in big cities live in deprived areas

In the capital municipalities of the 14 Italian metropolitan cities, one out of every ten minors (10.3%, equal to about 142,000 minors) lives in an area of urban socio-economic hardship (Adu) with rates of school drop-out and abandonment twice as high as in other areas. Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin and Palermo host almost 73.5% of the minors living in Adu. The city of Rome alone just over a fifth, more than 30,000 0-17 year olds. In these areas, 42.3% of the families live in relative poverty and more than one 15-29 year old out of three (35.6%) does not study and does not work compared to 22.9% of the average of the municipalities. Only 36.5% of 13-year-olds plan to enrol in high school, compared to 66.9% of those living in less vulnerable areas. It is on the educational level that the greatest inequalities between girls and boys are recorded between the various neighbourhoods of the same city, where gaps equal to those between the North and the South of the country are recorded.

These are some of the data from Save The Children's research 'The places that count' released on the eve of 'Impossible 2026', the biennial children's event to be held on 21 May in Rome, at the Acquario Romano, where the organisation will call for structural interventions and resources to remove inequalities, starting with socio-educational spaces in vulnerable areas.

In these areas - 158 in total identified by Istat - 15.4% of students in lower and upper secondary schools (more than one in seven) dropped out of school or repeated the school year, a percentage twice as high as the average of 7.6% of municipalities in metropolitan cities; 20.8% of those attending the last year of secondary school are at risk of implicit dropout (10 percentage points higher than the municipalities' average of 11%).

According to Save The Children's unpublished sample survey, 16.7% of secondary school seniors in or near vulnerable areas in large cities happened not to have the necessary school supplies at the beginning of the year (compared to 10.5% of pupils in schools in other areas) and 17.3% did not participate in a school trip for economic reasons (compared to 7.6%). In addition, only 36.5% think they will enrol in high school, 30 percentage points lower than the 66.9% of female students in the other districts, reflecting the weight of inequalities on their choices.