Nearly 27% of minors under 16 in Italy—approximately 2 million children—are at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2024, according to an ISTAT report on living conditions. This risk surges dramatically to 43.6% among children residing in the South and Islands.
The national statistics bureau found the risk intensifies with the number of children in a household. Foreign minors face significantly higher vulnerability, with 43.6% at risk compared to 23.5% of their Italian peers—a disparity exceeding 20 percentage points.
Parental education levels show a stark correlation: over half (51.8%) of children whose parents have only a lower secondary education face poverty risks, a rate five times higher than those with at least one university-educated parent (10.3%). Families with young children, often in early life stages, report greater financial strain, particularly from mortgage payments (22.7%, over twice the national average of 10.2%) or rent costs (23.6% versus 18.4%).
Despite an overall 3 percentage point decrease in child poverty risk since 2021—driven by improvements in the North—the proportion of at-risk foreign minors has doubled during this period. ISTAT emphasized that a child’s family financial situation critically influences their likelihood of experiencing poverty in adulthood.