More than half of Italians find it difficult to make ends meet

More than half of Italians have difficulty making it to the end of the month. One in four families cannot afford a week’s vacation away from home, and one in three claims to be paid inadequate for their efforts and work. And again: one in three Italians does not have a PC or internet connection and 60 percent of the interviewees do not carry out any physical activity during the week. These are some of the data returned by “ITA.LI. – Italian Lives, Survey on life courses in Italy “, the longitudinal qualitative-quantitative survey conducted by the IASSC (Institute for Advanced Study of Social Change) of the Sociology and Social Research Department of the University of Milano-Bicocca, together at the Ipsos research institute, and financed by the Ministry of University and Research through funds from the Departments of Excellence. A clear photograph of Italian society, taken between June 2019 and December 2020 through questionnaires submitted to 8,778 subjects, over 16 years of age, belonging to 4,900 families, selected in over 280 Italian municipalities through a probabilistic sampling system developed with Istat The goal is the construction of a dynamic database on intergenerational social change in Italy. The quantitative survey will develop over time in several “wave” of surveys, through the collection of a large set of retrospective information on the members of the families involved. The first wave took place between June 2019 and December 2020 and the second one started in September, thus reconstructing the life course of all the participants, in relation to geographical or residential mobility, education, career, marital status, family composition, with information on the perceptions and habits of those involved with respect to issues such as health, quality of life, resources, debts and family support, access to the Internet and political participation. A year ago the researchers from Milano-Bicocca had made public a first focus on a selected sample of participants to shed light on “Italy in the time of Covid-19”. Now the results of the first wave are released. 59 percent of respondents say they have at least some difficulty making it to the end of the month. Only 1.7 percent get there easily. If 28 per cent of families, just over one in four, could not afford a week’s holiday a year away from home, 34 per cent – one in three – do not own a PC and 33 per cent do not have a Internet connection. 26 percent of households believe that housing costs are a heavy burden and 23 percent say they would not be able to cope with unexpected expenses of around 800 euros. While 14 percent of families have had to give up dental treatment for economic reasons, 8 percent cannot afford to eat meat or fish at least once every two days. The family’s net monthly income is € 2,860. 36 percent of respondents say they are receiving compensation that is not adequate for their efforts and work. 54 per cent of respondents believe their work does not give good career advancement prospects and 35 per cent feel they are not receiving proper recognition for their work. 59 percent believe they are constantly under pressure from the heavy workload and 40 percent say they have very little freedom in deciding how to do their job. On average, the annual savings of families is around 3900 euros and the amount of household debt is 2700 euros.The smartphone is not lacking within the walls of the Italians, only 13 percent of respondents say they do not own one. The most popular social / app is WhatsApp, used by 57 percent of respondents. In second place is Facebook, used by 47 percent. Followed by Instagram (26 percent), Twitter (9 percent), Telegram and LinkedIn (4 percent). Only 0.4 percent of respondents have a TikTok profile. However, 32 percent currently report that they do not have a personal profile on social networks or apps. 60 percent of respondents never engage in physical activity (such as sports, gardening, dancing, hiking or brisk walking). Around 28 percent, on the other hand, engage in physical activity at least once a week. 13 percent of the sample reported having long-term health problems. 39 percent of respondents suffered from insomnia or had difficulty falling asleep.