Single mothers on the rise and increasingly at risk of poverty
Italy has 2,715,000 single-parent families, or 10.4 per cent of the total. Of these, eight out of ten are women with children
4' min read
4' min read
The film 'Single Moms Club' in 2014 was not a great success. The reviews were bad and the box office takings far below expectations. And yet, despite the flop, the film represented a growing reality, and not only in the United States, where today 25% of under-18s live with a single parent, according to OECD data. This percentage stands at 14% in Italy. In Italy, in 2023, Istat counted 2,715,000 single-parent families, or 10.4% of the total. Of these, 81.65% were single mothers, amounting to 2,217,000, while single fathers accounted for only 18.35% of the total.
According to the projections of the ISTAT report, however, things could start to change in the next twenty years: in 2043, in fact, single-parent families will total 3 million, of which single mothers will number 2,328,000 while fathers will number 672,000, with an increase in the number of families with only fathers higher both in relative terms (+5% for mothers compared to +35% for fathers) and absolute terms (111,000 against 174,000).
A similar trend can be seen in the rest of Europe, where, says Eurostat, in 2023 in the 25-54 age group, the percentage of single women with children was 5.4 per cent, far higher than that of men in the same situation, which remained at 0.9 per cent.
Single mothers more at risk of poverty
.One is better off as a couple than as a single person, at least from an economic point of view. This is shown by numbers, which indicate that in 2024 among single-parent households the risk of poverty or social exclusion reached 32.1 per cent, compared to 21.2 per cent for couples with children. The situation worsens if the lone parent is a woman. Among single-parent households with children under 16, for example, the risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2024 was 39.1%, against 27.2% for couples, but rose to 41.3% in the case of single mothers, against 27.6% for single fathers. This figure highlights the particularly fragile economic situation in which single women with minor children find themselves. On the other hand, it is enough to consider employment data to explain the phenomenon: in the 25-34 age group, only one in two single mothers is employed. Moreover, the wage treatment these women receive is often inadequate. In our country, in fact, 26.6 per cent of women, i.e. more than one in four, are at risk of low-income employment, while the same condition affects only one in six men, i.e. 16.8 per cent.
In Italy, some measures aim to mitigate the risk of poverty. Starting for example with the mothers' bonus, confirmed for 2025 and also extended to self-employed women, but for which the implementation decree has not yet arrived. In this case the decontribution is granted to those who have three or more children or to those who have two children only if their annual taxable income is less than EUR 40,000. As of 2025, families with an Isee value of up to 40,000 euro will be able to receive a one-off contribution worth 1,000 euro (Carta per i nuovi nati), while the crèche bonus, an economic contribution modulated according to the family nucleus Indicator band, has been in force since 2016. The €500 'Dedicated to you' social card is reserved for families with ISee up to €15,000 and can be used to buy groceries, fuel and public transport passes. While the €40 monthly 'Carta acquisti' is for families with children under three years of age who are in a difficult economic situation.
