In 2022, the mean household income of Italian households and their mean equivalized income rose in real terms by 1.4 and 1.8 per cent, respectively, from 2020. They are still, however, lower than those observed in 2006 prior to the global financial crisis (by 10 and 5 per cent, respectively). The Gini index of equivalent income increased from 32.8 per cent to 33.6 per cent over the two-year period and, excluding the impact of the new sample design, it is still lower than the figures recorded between the late 1990s and the early 2000s and those prior to the pandemic.
After falling sharply during the pandemic, mean household spending turned upwards in 2022, rising by 5.7 per cent in real terms compared with the previous survey, driven mainly by durable goods. Spending by households in the top quintile of the income distribution increased by around 11 per cent, owing to the robust recovery in purchases of non-essential goods and services, while spending by households in the bottom quintile continued to fall (-2 per cent).
In 2022, more than half of all households did not put aside any savings: this percentage rises to 70 per cent for households belonging to the lowest quintile of the income distribution and drops to 28 per cent for those in the top quintile.
Mean net wealth, valued at constant prices, rose by 1.8 per cent compared with 2020; the median instead fell by 2 per cent. The share attributable to the most affluent 10 per cent of households increased by around 2 percentage points, to 52 per cent.
The percentage of indebted households held stable at 26 per cent. Households with income above the median accounted for 85 per cent of total financial debt. Compared with 2020, the share of financial debt held by households with below-the-median income fell by around 2 percentage points, with the largest drop occurring in consumer credit (-6 percentage points).
The percentage of financially vulnerable households also held steady vis-à-vis 2020 at 1.5 per cent of total households. However, they make up a smaller share of indebted households than two years earlier, falling by about 1 percentage point to 7 per cent.
