Italy’s child poverty crisis reaches beyond the dinner table

Around 430,000 under-16s lived in households unable to afford adequate food or ordinary social activities in 2024, with deprivation rising sharply among younger children.

In Italy, food poverty is no longer confined to empty cupboards. It is also shaping whether children can eat fruit and vegetables every day, invite a friend round or take part in ordinary social life. According to an analysis by ActionAid, about 430,000 children and young people under 16 lived in households in 2024 that could not, for financial reasons, provide proper food or decent chances to socialise. Among children aged six to 11, the share facing these deprivations rose from 3.8% in 2021 to 6.8% in 2024, which ActionAid said amounts to roughly 220,000 minors.

The organisation’s findings suggest the pressure reaches well beyond diet alone. Roberto Sensi, who leads ActionAid Italy’s food poverty programme, said the problem starts with meals and the ability to host a friend, but continues through education, work and the search for housing that allows a young person to build an independent life. His warning comes as Italy debates falling birth rates, even though the data point to a more immediate obstacle: the growing cost of raising children in a country where stability arrives later and often at a higher price.

Housing appears to be one of the key fault lines. Among minors living in owner-occupied homes without a mortgage, food or social deprivation affected 3.6%, while the figure jumped to 12% for those in rented accommodation, according to the ActionAid analysis. That is consistent with wider poverty trends. ISTAT said 2024 absolute poverty affected more than 2.2 million households and 5.7 million people, or 9.8% of the resident population, while minors faced an absolute poverty rate of 13.8%. The burden is heaviest in the South and islands, where child poverty is highest, but the problem is far from regional only.

ActionAid says the deterioration is spreading into households that would not usually be classed as poor. Its latest work shows food deprivation rising among the overall population, including people in work, as inflation in food, housing and energy continues to squeeze budgets. In 2023, the group said, more than 5.9 million people in Italy experienced material or social food deprivation, while more than 4 million families were at risk of food poverty. Sensi argued that the response now needs to move beyond emergency food aid towards measures that tackle the causes of deprivation more directly and protect the right to adequate food.