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Child poverty on the rise in Italy: Report

Monday, 21 October 2019 8:54 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 21 October 2019 8:59 PM ]

Max Civili

Press TV, Rome

Save the children in Rome has released its latest edition of the Atlas on At Risk Children in Italy on the occasion of the launch of the campaign Let's Light Up The Future.

According to the figures emerging from the study the number of kids in poverty in Italy has tripled over the last 10 years.

The children's rights organization has found that more than 1.26 million minors were living in absolute poverty in 2018. The figure has soared from 375,000 or almost 4% of the underage population in 2008 to over 12 % last year.

Italy has the worst record among European Union countries when it comes to children poverty. Figures saw a sharp worsening in the hardest years of the economic crisis, between 2011 and 2014, when the rate of minors growing up in conditions of disadvantages and deprivation went from 5% to 10%.

Child poverty has grown most notably in Italy’s southern regions. More than 560 million minors which are about 20 percent of Italy’s children were living in absolute poverty in 2018. However Save the Children has found that the numbers also rose in Italy’s northern and central parts.

The Save the Children's report has also looked at problems including inadequate housing, lack of educational opportunities and poor diets.

Figures show that one in seven children in Italy dropped out of education in 2018, almost half of minors did not read a single book last year and about one out of five is not doing any sports activity.

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