Adnkronos (Adnkronos) – In 2025, just over 2,1 million families are estimated to be living in absolute poverty; the incidence, equal to 8,0% of all resident families, is stable compared to 2024. Individuals living in absolute poverty number over 5,4 million, representing 9,3% of all residents, a figure that is also stable compared to the previous year (for statistically significant changes, see Table 1 of the Methodological Note).
Istat indicates this in its Report on Poverty in 2025.
The stability of the phenomenon compared to 2024 also confirms the highest incidence in the South (involving 813 families, 9,6% of residents in the area), followed by the Northwest (568 families, 7,7%) and the Northeast (386 families, 7,4%); the Centre shows, again in 2025, the lowest values (338 families, 6,3%).
Among the absolutely poor families, 38,6% live in the South (39,8% in 2024), 45,3% in the North (44,5% in 2024) and the remaining 16,1% in the Centre (15,7% in 2024).
Even among individuals, the highest rates of absolute poverty (over 11%) are observed in the South and the Islands, followed by the North-West (8,8%) and the Centre (7,4%).
The incidence of absolute poverty decreases with increasing age, going from 12,5% among minors (for a total of 1,136,000), to 12,1% among young people aged 18-34 (almost 1,198,000), to 8,9% for those aged 35-64 and to 6,1% among the over 65s (over 891,000).
The intensity of absolute poverty, which measures in percentage terms how much the monthly expenditure of poor families is on average below the poverty line (i.e. "how poor the poor are"), remains stable at the national level (18,5%), in the North (18,2%, with values equal to 18,5% in the North-West and 17,8% in the North-East) and in the Centre (18,2%), while in the South a slight increase is noted: the estimates rise to 19,0%, from 18,5% in 2024, due to the increase in the Islands (where it rises from 17,0% to 19,0%).
Signs of improvement compared to 2024, at the national level, are observed in smaller municipalities with up to 50 inhabitants (other than municipalities on the outskirts of metropolitan areas), where the incidence of absolute poverty dropped to 7,4% from 8,9%. Absolute poverty, however, is stable in municipalities with over 50 inhabitants, in municipalities on the outskirts of metropolitan areas, where the incidence is 8,9%, and in municipalities in the center of metropolitan areas, where it stands at 8,1%.
However, the dynamics differ across the regions: the stability in central metropolitan area municipalities reflects a decline in incidence in the North, where it drops from 8,2% to 5% (in the Northwest to 4,2%), and an increase in the Center, where it rises to 8,3% (from 4,1% in 2024). The improvement in smaller municipalities (not peripheral to metropolitan areas) is driven by the Center, with values equal to 5,4% (from 7,9% in 2024), and the South, where the incidence reaches 8,2% (from 11,0% in 2024).
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