Despite the economic recovery and the increase in employment, poverty in Sardinia shows no signs of decreasing. This is what emerges from the XIX Report on poverty and social exclusion of the Caritas regional delegation , presented today in Cagliari in view of the VIII World Day of the Poor to be held on November 17. The data describe a worrying reality, with a continuous growth of Sardinian families living in difficult conditions.
In 2023, the number of Italian families in absolute poverty reached 2,217,000 households, equal to 8.4% of resident families (10.2% in the Islands). In Sardinia, the absolute poverty threshold for a typical family was 1,475 euros per month in small municipalities and 1,586 euros in the metropolitan areas of Cagliari and Sassari. These values reflect an incidence of relative poverty that places the region in seventh place nationally, with 15.9% of families (118 thousand) living in conditions of economic hardship.
The economic effects of the pandemic seem almost over, but inflation has put many Sardinian households in difficulty . Despite the increase in employment, household incomes have been eroded by the rising prices of food and household utilities, reducing purchasing power . In 2023, monthly household consumption expenditure increased by only 0.3% in nominal terms, but in real terms, taking inflation into account, it fell by more than five percentage points.
In 2023, Sardinia saw an increase in employment, especially among women, but with contractual wages that grow less than the national average . This limits workers' ability to cope with the increase in living costs. As shown by the Caritas Report, inflationary pressure weighs on household spending, while the positive signs of the labor market do not yet translate into a tangible improvement in living conditions.