In 2013, almost one in 10 Italians
lived in absolute poverty, meaning they could not afford enough
goods and services to live a dignified life, national statistics
bureau Istat said Monday.
This is a record high since the agency began keeping track
of poverty levels in 2005, three years before Italy plunged into
what is its longest postwar recession.
The number of absolute poor was 6,020,000, or 9.9% of the
total population in 2013, up from 2,382,00 and 4.1% in 2005,
Istat said in its Poverty in Italy report.
While the rate of relative household poverty was stable
between 2012 (12.7%) and 2013 (12.6%), the rate of absolute
poverty increased especially in the south, where the number of
the absolute poor rose from 2,347,000 in 2012 to 3,072,000 in
2013, Istat said.
Absolute household poverty increased from 6.8% to 7.9% in
2013 over the previous year, with those figures spiking in the
south, jumping from 9.8% to 12.6% in the same period.
Absolute poverty rose among families with more than three
people and those with children (from 8.9% in 2012 to 12.2% in
2013).
Additionally, minors living in absolute poverty rose from
1.58 million or 10.3% in 2012 to 1.434 million and 13.8% in
2013.
The elderly were also hard hit last year, with 888,000 or
7% of the total population living in absolute poverty, up from
5.8% in 2012.
Another 6.4% of families in Italy is teetering on the brink
of poverty, Istat data showed.
Also on Monday, Coldiretti farmers' association said the
number of Italians living in extreme poverty more than doubled
since the economic crisis began in 2007, and children were the
hardest hit.
The extremely poor were 2.4 million in 2007, and rose by
150% to 6.2 million last year.
"In 2013, almost half a million, or 428.587 children under
five needed food aid, up 13% over the previous year," Coldiretti
said.
Of these indigent children under five years old, 149,002 or
35% live in Italy's impoverished southern regions and 129,240 or
30% live in the wealthier more industrialized north. More than
40% of all indigent children live in the Campania and Sicily
regions, according to Coldiretti.
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