An increasingly poor Sardinia. This is what emerges from the 20th Caritas Report on Poverty and Social Exclusion, presented this morning in Sassari in the Lessing Hall of the University of Sassari. The organization's mission and objectives were explained in particular by Father Marco Statzu, regional delegate of Caritas Sardinia, and Raffaele Callia, head of the regional Caritas's studies and research department.
The latter focused on data collected in 2024: in Sardinia, 128,000 families suffer from relative poverty, meaning their monthly spending is equal to or below a conventional threshold. This figure is up from 118,000 in 2023. "But what's most worrying," Callia says, "is absolute poverty, which is stagnant in the statistics, but that's not a good sign. Because it means it's frozen and will be very difficult to escape."
A total of 10,418 people—over half in Cagliari—have turned to the 78 Caritas counseling centers, spread across 42 Sardinian municipalities. The majority are Italian, 63.2%, with 42.1% foreigners, and the majority are women. "They," Callia continues, "are the ones who most often take on family problems."
The most affected age group is between 50 and 59, often single (38.2%), higher than married people (32.2%). This figure, as various speakers have pointed out, speaks to growing loneliness and a lack of social connections.
One recurring issue is the low level of education among those seeking help, with 79.5% having a low or medium-low level of education. 51.2% have only a middle school diploma, and, unfortunately, it's emphasized that the social ladder has stagnated, effectively leading to the intergenerational transmission of poverty between parents and children. 50.2% are unemployed. "But even those with an income," Callia points out, "from pensioners to workers, are unable to get by and come to us. This represents 14.8% of young people and 12.1% of pensioners. A quarter of the total."
And the economic and employment needs recorded by Caritas workers are 54.6%. "Even when people are employed, however, we see many forms of 'illegal' work that certainly can't help those who do them."
Material goods dominate the requests, accounting for 87.2% of requests, an increase of over 3 percentage points, while housing requests are at 4.9%. Finally, a figure regarding foreigners: overall, 2,734 people contacted Caritas, mostly Senegalese and Moroccan, and 58.2% of them from Cagliari.
Stefania Pusceddu, communications director for the regional Caritas, opened the final window: "Poverty is frequently associated with depression," she states. "There are 42,000 people who suffer from this phenomenon and are supported by the healthcare system, and 140,000 who exhibit depressive fragility." Thus, they suffer the double stigma of material poverty and depression.
In addition to Rector Gavino Mariotti and Bishop Antonello Mura of Nuoro, the mayor of Sassari, Giuseppe Mascia, also spoke: "The situation is very difficult," he reflected. "We don't have a single social fund, which is sorely needed when the resources to help those in need are lacking."