The interviews of the sample survey on the income and wealth of Italian households in 2010 were conducted between January and September 2011.
The sampling scheme was the same as that used in the previous surveys, with the sample size basically unchanged: 7,951 households were interviewed, compared with 7,977 for the 2008 survey. The households were drawn from the registry office records of 387 municipalities; they comprised 19,836 persons, including 13,074 income recipients. The questionnaire was more or less the same as that used in the previous survey.
Highlights
Average annual household income, net of tax and social security contributions, was €32,714 in 2010; average monthly income was €2,726. Equivalent income, a measure that takes the size and composition of households into account, was €18,914 per individual, which in real terms was 0.6 per cent less than in 2008. Measured on the basis of the Gini index, the inequality of equivalent income compared with the 2008 survey was unchanged at 0.33.
The average earnings received by each employee amounted to €16,559, in real terms about the same as in 2008 (-0.3 per cent). The average earnings from self-employment were €20,202 (-2.3 per cent). Average transfer income amounted to €10,672 (-3.4 per cent).
The average earnings received by each employee amounted to €16,559, in real terms about the same as in 2008 (-0.3 per cent). The average earnings from self-employment were €20,202 (-2.3 per cent). Average transfer income amounted to €10,672 (-3.4 per cent).
The proportion of poor people, conventionally taken to be those with an equivalent income of less than half the median, was 14.4 per cent, up by one percentage point compared with 2008. Among foreign citizens this poverty rate was above 40 per cent.
In 2010 some 29.8 per cent of households considered their income insufficient to make ends meet, 10.5 per cent considered it to be more than adequate, and 59.7 per cent reported a situation somewhere in between. Compared with the previous surveys, there was a rising trend in the proportion of households reporting they were in difficulty.
Households’ net wealth, i.e. the sum of real assets (property, businesses and valuables) and financial assets (deposits, government securities, shares, etc.) net of financial liabilities (mortgage loans and other debts), had a median value of €163,875 in 2010. The richest 10 per cent of households owned 45.9 per cent of households’ net worth (44.3 per cent in 2008). The concentration of wealth, measured by the Gini index, was equal to 0.62, a slight increase on the value recorded in 2008 (0.61).
The proportion of households with debts was 27.7 per cent. As in the past, debts were most common among households with medium-to-high incomes and those with a head of household aged less than 55 and self-employed or with a high educational qualification. Households’ liabilities consisted mainly of mortgage loans for the purchase or renovation of real estate.
The outstanding debt of the households that had at least one loan was equal to just over one year’s income; the value doubles considering only households with mortgage loans for the purchase of real estate. The median ratio of the total annual instalment for the repayment of loans (debt service) to household income was 12.4 per cent.
Financially vulnerable households, conventionally defined as those with debt service payments equal to more than 30 per cent of their income, were about 11.1 of the households with debts and were concentrated among low-income house holds. The level of financial vulnerability appeared stable compared with the past.
