Istat 2023 data on economic well-being they don’t smile at all Sicily where they are strongest inequalitiesthe more marked the risk of poverty and families struggle even more than those in the rest of the country to get to end of month. With the exception ofhousing emergency which, according to the report from the National Institute of Statistics, also affects the North, Sicily stay behind in practically all the indicators examined.
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Gross income, here are the comparisons
For gross income per capita: Bolzano ‘beats’ Sicily €28,453 to €15,830. Let’s start with income. With 15,830 euros, our island ranks at third last placeAfter Calabria (14,991 euros) e Campania (15,428 euros) per gross income per capita. Figures, those recorded by Istat and relating to 2022, which are far from the Italian average (21,089 euros). And even further from those of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (28,453 euros) and of Trentino Alto Adige (26,163 euros).
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It’s difficult to say “average wealth”
If we look at the average net wealth per capitathe distance between the North and South of the country becomes even greater sidereal: The North records a value of 120,340 euros, for the Noon instead values more than halved (53,369 euros). In the middle there is the Center with 93,886 euros. Overall, in 2023, the disposable income gross per capita increased by 14.9% compared to 2019, exceeding pre-pandemic crisis levels.
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36.8% of Sicilians risk poverty
Profound territorial differences are also highlighted by the indicator risk of povertycalculated on 2021 incomes: “Compared to 20.1% – we read in the Bes Report – of people with an equivalent net income lower than or equal to 60% of equivalent income median observed at national level, in Sicily And Campania the phenomenon comes to affect approximately the 36.8% of the population. In the regions of Southern Italy – ISTAT further observes – the higher risk of poverty is also associated with higher values of the inequality indexi.e. the ratio between the income possessed by the richest 20% of the population (S80) and the poorest 20% (S20), which exceeds the average value for Italy (5.6) in Calabria And Campania (5,9) and in Sicily (6.0)”.
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More children means more poverty in Sicily
Overall, the report explains, the preliminary estimates for 2023 confirm that the large families have the highest values of absolute poverty (those with five or more components stand at 20.3%, returning to the 2021 values), while the lowest level is observed among the families with two members: “The presence of minor children – we read in the document – continues to be a factor that exposes more families experiencing hardship: the incidence of absolute poverty remains high for families with at least one minor child (at 12.0%, it was 11.8% in 2022 and 11.0% in 2021); the spread of this phenomenon increases as the number of minor children in the family increases and is important among the single-parent families with minors. In 2023, the incidence of absolute individual poverty for minors stands at 14.0%, the highest value in the historical series since 2014; The over65however, remain the lowest segment of the population economic hardship with a value equal to 6.3%”.
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Inflationary flare-up: in the South it “burns” more
There inflationary flare-up she is the true “negative protagonist” of the post pandemic phase. But let’s reconstruct all the phases step by step. The “blow” inflicted on the economy by the health and economic emergency caused by Covid-19 certainly contributed to Basic income from which they had benefited approximately starting from the second quarter of 2019 a million families. Not even in time to emerge from the crisis (which affected the decline in consumption and spending behavior in the most difficult months of the lockdown) before families found themselves facing a new “bete noire”.
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Inflation increased by one point
If in 2020 the individual incidence of absolute poverty had jumped to 9.1%and then remained stable in 2021, in 2022 it began to grow again, reaching 9.7%largely due to the strong acceleration of inflation which hit the hardest less wealthy families. In fact, the expenses of the latter have not managed to keep pace with the increase in prices, including that of essential goods and services considered in the absolute poverty basket. In 2023 compared to a national average value of 9.8%, the North recorded a slightly decreasing figure (9%). The one recorded in the Center is even lower (8%). Bad, as usual, the South, where the value skyrockets to 12.1%.
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Severe deprivation: dramatic numbers
In 2022, 6.1% of Sicilian population she found herself in a situation of severe material and social deprivation. The Italian average stands at 4.5%a figure which in Campania rises dramatically to 14% and in Calabria to 11.8% but which drops dramatically to 1.5% in Lombardy and even 1% in Emilia Romagna. 8.8% of the Sicilian population still declares that in 2022 they had great difficulty making it to the end of the month. Also for this indicator there are marked territorial differences: starting from 6.9% of the national average, a value which drops to 2.5% of the Tuscany and even 1.4% of theEmilia Romagna but which rises to 18.7% of the Calabria up to 24.3% of Campania.
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Housing emergency, Piedmont worse than Sicily
The housing emergency causes the usual contrast to explode North South: if we look at the indicator relating to severe housing deprivationIn fact, Piedmont even records values that are more than double the Italian average (10.8% and 5.2% respectively). Numbers above average but not that dramatic in Sicily (5.5%), Puglia (7.6%) e Sardinia (7.3%). Tuscany Italian region with the lowest value (2.7%). Compared to previous years, the overload indicator also decreased throughout the country cost of housing, which is difficult to sustain for 6.6% of the Italian population (it stood at 7.2% in 2021 and 8.7% in 2019). In Sicily it rises and stands at 8.2%.
