A report by Caritas Italy, the official pastoral organization of the Catholic Church in the country, indicates that in the last ten years the number of people over 65 years old served by the organization’s network dedicated to helping the most needy has grown by 191.0%.

“These data highlight the growing interrelationship between economic poverty, aging, fragile health, weakening family networks, and social isolation,” the analysis points out. Federica De Lauso, a researcher at Caritas Italy, stated that “poverty is increasingly combined with chronic illnesses, mental health conditions, and disabilities, and all of this, even for older people, especially those over 65, represents an additional burden and strain.”

The expert also pointed out that a third of people living in poverty in Italy are single, and referred in particular to the difficult situation of many families, often single-parent households, who are increasingly seeking assistance, as 52.0% of these families have minor children, equivalent to 147,000 households.

Poverty in Italy is increasingly manifesting as a progressive weakening of bonds, close relationships, and concrete opportunities to receive support during times of greatest difficulty, according to the study, which warns that by 2025 the number of people supported by the network will have grown by 1.7 percent year-on-year.

The document also highlights that “there have been no decreases compared to the pre-pandemic period, confirming that poverty is becoming entrenched and has become a stable condition in the lives of many families,” a situation expected to worsen in 2026, when inflation in the eurozone could reach 3.1%.

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