Chapter 1: What Are the Family Characteristics That Better Help to Cope with the Economic Crisis? Evidence from a Large Population Survey in Italy

Over the past few years, the global economy has undergone a severe downturn, and financial hardship has become a significant public concern in many countries. The depressed economic climate is affecting many families: the ongoing high rates of unemployment have reduced families' standard of living and have also contributed to changes in several areas of family life.

Italy is the European country with the highest number of people living in ‘severe material deprivation’. This emerges from the 2015 Eurostat data, which indicate a significant drop in the number of poor people in Europe, but only a marginal one in Italy. In 2015, 41,092 million poor people lived in Europe; the poverty rate fell to 8.2% of the total number of European citizens, from 9% in 2014. In Italy, by contrast, the poverty rate rose from 11.5% to 11.6%, i.e. a total of 6,982,000 of people living in overt poverty.¹ According to Eurostat (2015), these are people who cannot deal with an unexpected expense, afford a meal with meat every two days or maintain a home. The risk of poverty or the social exclusion indicator in Italy remains stable compared to 2013²: the decrease in the percentage of people in severely deprived families (12.3%–11.6%) is offset by an increase in the percentage of people living in low work intensity families (from 11.3% to 12.1%). The poverty risk estimation is rather unchanged (ISTAT, 2015).