Pandemic pushed Italy extreme poverty to 15-year high

 

ISTAT said on Thursday that according to preliminary data, the number of absolute poor in Italy reached the highest level since 2020 in 15 years. 

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the incidence of absolutely poor households has risen from 6.4% in 2019 to 7.7% in 2020, which means an increase of 335,000 from over 2 million absolutely poor households. 

The report said that the incidence of individuals rose from 7.7% to 9.4%, which means that 5.6 million people are in absolute poverty, an annual increase of more than 1 million. 

 

The uptrend recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic year means that the decline in poverty levels achieved in 2019 has been reversed.