Research firm Censis on Friday
released the 49th edition of its annual study on the social
situation in Italy, revealing the country's changing face in
areas including lifestyle, finances, media, technology, and
healthcare.
The study said Italy is currently experiencing a "dangerous
poverty in planning for the future" resulting in the prevalence
of a "collective existential lethargy" leading to inertia and a
"day-to-day" mentality that tends to value individual interests
over those of the wider community.
However, it also revealed that this year's "primacy of
politics" with business-oriented reforms and an emphasis on
collective involvement in financial recovery have contributed to
an upsurge in the country's economic and social dynamism.
The study said development is characterised by the capacity
for inventiveness, citing examples of young people who go abroad
for work or form start-ups, families who round out their income
by renting out their properties as bed and breakfasts, and
businesses that invest in the green economy and continued
innovation.
One area where financial recovery was seen this year was in
purchasing power, where the number of families whose purchasing
power increased outnumbered those whose purchasing power has
decreased, 25% to 21% respectively.
This year's purchasing power increase was the first since
the start of the financial crisis, but the survey added that 20%
of Italian families are unable to cover all of their expenses
with their income.
The way Italians shop and consume is also changing with the
times, with 15 million Italians who said they buy online and two
million (4%) who said they participate in car sharing.
The mix of street-level shops in Italy's urban centres
trended towards prepared food, with a 37% increase in take-away
food shops since 2009, and a more than 10% decrease in hardware
shops, boutiques, bookshops and butcher shops.
Also on the rise over the past six years are restaurants
(up 15.5%), coffee bars (+10%), and ice cream and pastry shops
(+8%).
The research institute said the increases are due to low
start-up costs, foreigners' initiative, and the pervasiveness of
food in daily life.
In terms of mass media, the survey said Pope Francis is the
"media phenomenon of the year", as 77.9% of Catholics in Rome
called the pope's charisma one of Catholicism's strengths.
Censis also cited data from American fact tank Pew Research
Center, showing that Pope Francis outranked both US presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin
in US media coverage.
In the school setting, 54.9% of school principals in Italy
have dealt with cyber bullying cases.
On a scale of 1-10, school principals rated cyber bullying
as the top online threat at 7, and 58.5% of them said their
greatest challenge with cyber bullying was trying to convince
parents of its seriousness.
The news wasn't positive for views on public healthcare, as
more than four in 10 Italians in the survey said they think
healthcare is worsening, a figure that increases to six in 10 in
Italy's south.
Survey respondents said problems include rising costs and
long wait times that often drive patients to pay out-of-pocket
at private healthcare providers who offer competitive rates with
shorter waits.
In children's healthcare, four in 10 Italian parents of
children between the ages 0-15 look for information online about
whether or not to vaccinate their children, with nearly half of
them reading information on social networks.
Despite the fact that 54.8% of parents said they were
informed by their child's physician about vaccinations, three in
10 of the parents in the survey said they would like to know
more.
Only 35.7% of parents surveyed said they are openly
favorable to vaccinations, while 32.3% are only in favor of
those vaccinations that are mandatory and free.
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