Published i data from Sicily of the eleventh edition of Report on fair and sustainable well-being (Bes) from Istat. Despite the positive signs in access to fast Internet, the Region remains struggling with many negative indicators in various sectors: in the last places for education and work, bad in forest fire management and the public mobility.
IlSicilia.it analyzed data from the nine provinces of “Bes Report”, presented Wednesday 17 Aprilwhich summarizes the well-being profile of the region and its provinces under various aspects: the position in the national and European context, the strengths, the disadvantages, the territorial disparities, the recent developments.
General data for Sicily
The job’s world
In 2023, Sicily recorded one lack of participation in the labor market of 32.6%, ten times higher than that of Bolzano e more than double the national average. The employment rate in the 20-64 age group is 48.7%, compared to the national 66.3%.
Sicilian womenespecially mothers, are particularly penalized, with an employment rate of mothers with pre-school children at 61%, the lowest in Italy.
Only 6.9% of Sicilian employed people resorted to work from home in 2023, compared to 12% nationally. The share of involuntary part time is 14.8%, the highest in Italy. Sicily is al second place for irregular employment, with 16% compared to the national 10.8%. This phenomenon contributes to characterizing the Italian labor market, with negative consequences on workers’ rights and pensions.
The Satisfaction rate for the work done in Sicily is 45%, lower than the national average by 51.7%. Employment insecurity is at 6.4%, the second highest value in Italy.
Sicily also records the highest percentage of workers with fixed-term contracts for at least 5 years, 27.9% in 2020. Only 18% of workers saw their permanent contracts transformed between 2019 and 2020.
Finally, Sicily presents a percentage of over-educated workers of 27.6%, in line with the national average. These data highlight a critical situation in the Sicilian labor market, with high levels of precariousness, dissatisfaction and lack of safety for workers.
Fast Internet
Positive signs are emerging regarding access to fast Internetwith 45.4% of Sicilian families served by a high-speed connection, many critical issues are also highlighted.
The region shows notable improvement in internet access, with a increase of 8.1% compared to 2022but this figure remains well below the national average of 59.6%.
Life expectancy
Life expectancy in Sicily is on average 81.3 years and in Italy 82.6. As for the child mortality a figure was recorded that stands at 3.3 per thousand compared to the national 2.5. Regarding the mortality from cancer in the age groups ranging from 20 to 64 years, in Sicily the mortality is equal to 8.6 out of 10,000.
The data that emerged, according to Istat, depended on the efficiency of the healthcare system, which is heavily under pressure, and on the dynamics that lead people to make less and less use of medical and healthcare services.
Education, Training and Culture
One of the most affected sectors is education. The data shows that Sicily is the lowest performing region in Italy.
During the 2022/23 school year, 38.5% of Sicilian students did not reach a passing grade in Italian, while 44.2% failed in mathematics.
These numbers place Sicily at the top of the list of regions with the worst results in both areas. Furthermore, the region has a particularly low share of people between 25 and 64 years old with at least one qualification or upper secondary diploma, stopping at 54.9%.
Another concern concerns the phenomenon of early leavers (premature abandonment) and NEETs. Sicily is among the first regions with a high rate of early leavers, young people who leave the education and training system with only a lower secondary school qualification.The 18.6% of young Sicilians falls into this category.
Beyond 20% of young Sicilians instead falls into the NEET category, that is neither employed nor engaged in training. These data are alarming, especially considering that the national average is decreasing.
Further alarm is spreading in the South regarding the students’ skills eighth grade in Italian and mathematics, according to national Invalsi surveys.
In particular, the situation is critical in Sicilywhere is the 50.2% of students have insufficient skills in Italian and 61.4% in mathematics. These data place Sicily at the first place for insufficiency in linguistic skills and second for mathematical onesfollowed by Calabria, Campania and Sardinia.
Cultural activities in Sicily instead they see one participation significantly lower than in the rest of Italy. Only a quarter of citizens went to the cinema at least four times in the last year, visited a theatre, museum or archaeological site, or attended musical concerts.
Reading books and newspapers is equally neglected, with only 20% of citizens reading at least four books or three newspapers a week. These data place Sicily at the penultimate place for library attendance, preceded only by Campania.
Furthermore, the basic digital skills are below the national averagewith only 34.5% of citizens owning them, compared to 46% nationally.
Public mobility
Public mobility remains another critical point for Sicily. Only 7.2% of people over the age of 14 regularly use public mobility servicesa figure well below the national average of 12.9%.
This indicates the need to improve the accessibility and efficiency of public transport in the region, in order to ensure greater mobility and accessibility for citizens.
Fire management
A particular chapter within the Bes report is the picture of the forest fire situation which represents further negative data for Sicily. Although there has been an improvement compared to previous years, the region continues to be among the most affected by this phenomenon. In 2022, Sicily registered the highest percentage of forest fires, although a marked improvement compared to 2021.
This data highlights the importance of continuing efforts to prevent and manage forest fires effectively.
Data source: National BES report
Tags: bottom education work badly mobility fire management
