UNICEF: One child in four in Italy lives below the poverty line.

Almost one in four Italian children lives below the poverty line: 23% of Italian children live in families with an income below 60% of the national average - one of the highest rates in Europe. This is according to the report: "Unequal Opportunities - Children and Economic Inequality," by UNICEF's Office of Strategy and Evidence - Innocenti. Italy ranks 12th in the ranking of child well-being among 37 countries. It is in the first third of the ranking for mental well-being (10th place), while it is in the middle range for physical health (17th place) and skills (25th place). Among the countries with comparable data included in the report, Italy ranks 22nd out of 40 for income inequality, with the richest quintile of the population earning 5.35 times the income of the poorest quintile. It ranks 30th for child poverty, with a rate of 22%. The report also shows that the eating habits of children vary greatly depending on family income. Among Italians aged 11 to 15, 22% of children from low-income families eat vegetables every day, compared to 39% of those from high-income families: a difference of 17 percentage points. Daily fruit consumption is 32% (low income) compared to 40% (high income). Daily consumption of sugary drinks shows the opposite trend: 18% in low-income families and 12% in high-income families. These disparities suggest that food policies aimed at low-income families (school meals, fruit and vegetable distribution programs, sugar regulation) address a real and measurable inequality. In Italy, the suicide rate among young people (15-19 years old) is among the lowest in the EU, at 2.82 per 100,000. The report also notes that Italian adolescents report a relatively high level of life satisfaction, but there is a significant gap. 73% of 15-year-olds in Italy report a high level of life satisfaction. Among adolescents from the 20% most disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, the percentage is 66%. In the 20% with the most favorable socioeconomic background, it rises to 79%, with a gap of 13 percentage points. Furthermore, Italian adolescents spend more time on homework than their peers in almost all other countries included in the report. More than half of 15-year-olds reach a basic level of proficiency in math and reading, but with significant socioeconomic differences. 57% of Italian 15-year-olds reach a basic level of proficiency in both math and reading. Among adolescents in the lowest socioeconomic quintile, this percentage drops to 45%; in the highest quintile, it rises to 84%. This 39 percentage point gap between the two extremes of the social gradient is one of the largest inequalities in learning found in Italian data. School segregation is moderate, suggesting that the learning gap is not primarily determined by the school attended by students. The "school segregation" index in Italy is 0.23, which indicates that students from different socioeconomic backgrounds are relatively well distributed among schools. The significant gap in learning outcomes therefore stems primarily from within the school system or from factors related to it. This refers to factors such as early orientation towards academic, technical and vocational secondary school paths from the age of 14, family resources and conditions outside of school, as well as differences in the quality of teaching and school resources between regions.