• The annual Istat report signals weak economic growth, further slowed by an increasingly pronounced fragility across the country's territories.
• The ecological transition is advancing but is not yet sufficient, and social, territorial and gender divides are widening.
• We are a country made up of ever more elderly people, while young people struggle to find opportunities: a generational pact is needed.

A country undergoing a profound social transformation. Environmentally increasingly fragile, with inequalities dangerously widening, partly due to sluggish economic growth. And one that, in the face of an ecological, social and technological transition, urgently needs a solidarity pact between generations. This is the picture painted by the 2025 annual report of the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat), which places at its centre not only traditional economic indicators, but the ever-tighter interweaving of wellbeing, environment and demographics. Weak growth (+0.7 per cent in 2024, lower than many other European countries) and a partial recovery in real wages go hand in hand with a critical outlook for productivity and for the environmental and social sustainability of growth.

Istat confirms that climate fragility impacts the economy

The report's first chapter, dedicated to Economy and Environment, highlights, among other things, the vulnerability of Italy's productive system to climate risks. According to Istat, 35 per cent of Italian municipalities are exposed to at least one type of natural hazard, and nearly one fifth of national gross value added (18.2 per cent) is generated in territories subject to significant environmental dangers. Between 1980 and 2023, Italy suffered economic damage totalling 134 billion euros as a result of extreme events, second only to Germany. These are enormous costs that disproportionately affect certain economic sectors and already vulnerable territories, such as inland and coastal areas, aggravating territorial divides and slowing the ecological transition.

Rinnovabili ✓ @rinnovabiliit

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🔎 Dissesto idrogeologico, 20 mld spesi in 25 anni, CNI: investire nella prevenzione.20 miliardi spesi in 25 anni, ma servono prevenzione e pianificazione. rinnovabili.it/green-building…

15 mag 2025 · Apri su X →

Environmental sustainability, Istat confirms, remains a crucial challenge. Compared to 2008, for example, Italy has reduced its climate-altering emissions by 32 per cent and domestic material consumption by 40 per cent: this is good news, but the energy transition is now slowing down rather than taking off. Renewable energy production has tripled to around 130 TWh, but remains well below that of Italy's main European partners (nearly 380 TWh in Germany). The potential for development exists, but structural investment and a coherent decarbonisation strategy at the local level are lacking. Furthermore, the fragmentation of the productive fabric and the limited spread of innovation among small and medium-sized enterprises are hindering the large-scale adoption of green practices. Istat underlines how the transformation of the productive model must pass through innovation, human capital and territorial planning — elements that remain too weak. Younger and more digitalised companies already show better environmental performance today, but they still represent a limited share of the national economic system.

Istat captures a society that is ageing and emptying out

The report's second chapter is a wide-ranging demographic alarm. Italy is falling below 59 million inhabitants, with just 370,000 births recorded in 2024 — a new historic low. The population is ageing, concentrating in cities and municipalities in the centre-north, while inland areas and small towns are emptying out. Large families are shrinking in number, while single-person households are on the rise (35 per cent), as are elderly people living alone.

Alessandro Leonardi @AleEquilibrium

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Il generale e profondo declino dell'Italia accelera anche per l'enorme perdita di potenziale umano, fra cui i famosi "cervelli in fuga". Secondo le ultime analisi della Fondazione Nord Est << nel 2022 il 43,1% dei giovani che ha lasciato

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Grafico della @FondazioneNE

♥ 251💬 15 23 set 2024 · Apri su X →

Meanwhile, more than 156,000 Italian citizens left the country in 2024, more than half of them graduates. The so-called "brain drain" has reached a new record and compounds a persistent difficulty in retaining and attracting human capital. The migratory contribution is positive but not conclusive: the resident foreign population is growing, but new arrivals do not offset the negative natural balance.

Poverty, health, access to rights: inequalities on many fronts

What is increasing, unfortunately, are inequalities. Absolute poverty affects 2.2 million families and 5.7 million people, including 1.3 million minors. The hardest hit are large families, those with at least one foreign member (where the incidence exceeds 35 per cent) and residents in the South. The employment rate is rising (62.2 per cent), but Italy remains a laggard in Europe, with wide territorial and gender divides. Work is often precarious or underpaid: one in five workers has an insufficient income, and among those on fixed-term contracts the figure rises to 46 per cent.

And inequalities are not only economic: they affect health, access to education, social mobility and quality of life. Healthy life expectancy has fallen by 1.3 years for women, dropping to just 56 years (60 for men), while 9.9 per cent of the population reports having foregone healthcare, mainly for economic reasons or because waiting lists are too long. Resort to private healthcare is growing (for 23.9 per cent of the population), demonstrating a public health system under strain. The situation is even more critical for people with disabilities and for those living in disadvantaged areas, where infrastructural, healthcare and mobility shortfalls compound one another.

Disadvantaged conditions tend to accumulate, creating genuine "cycles of exclusion" that affect children, young people and single-income families in particular. Istat highlights how, in the absence of redistributive measures and social investment, inequalities risk becoming structural, undermining social cohesion and democratic participation.

Today's young people: better educated, but with fewer opportunities

The third and fourth chapters of the report offer a wide-ranging reflection on the generational divide. Young people are better educated than their parents, but struggle to achieve economic independence. Entry into the labour market is delayed, often marked by precarious or under-qualified contracts. Only 17.6 per cent of children of parents with low levels of education manage to graduate, compared to 75 per cent of those with graduate parents: social mobility has ground to a halt. Meanwhile, older generations are living longer, but naturally have growing needs, and the ageing of the population is not being accompanied by a redefinition of care services and family models. Elderly people living alone account for more than 40 per cent of those aged over 75, often without an adequate support network. The generational imbalance is also reflected in the economy: many businesses are unable to ensure a generational turnover, and new youth-led enterprises, though more innovative and sustainable, struggle to scale up.

Istat @istat_it

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👥 Le nuove generazioni sono più istruite e partecipano più a lungo ai percorsi formativi. L'istruzione incide positivamente su redditi, occupazione e mobilità sociale. Persistono differenze legate al contesto familiare e territoriale.
#RapportoAnnualeIstat #istat

♥ 8 21 mag 2025 · Apri su X →

This is why the Istat 2025 report closes with an implicit proposal: what is needed are policies that integrate environmental, social and economic vision. The challenge is not simply to grow, but to do so in an equitable, sustainable and resilient way. Investing in young people, strengthening education, supporting families and ensuring accessible services are the decisive turning points for a new generational pact. The alternative is a silent decline — demographically unstoppable and socially unequal.