Families assisted by Caritas are increasing, +62% since 2014

More and more people are turning to Caritas. The help reaches many families and, overall, about 12% of those in absolute poverty. In 2024, the Caritas Listening and Service Centers welcomed 277,775 people, corresponding to the same number of families. A number that grew by 3% compared to 2023 and by 62.6% compared to ten years ago (2014). The incidence of "new listening" is decreasing (37.7%, compared to 41% in 2023), while situations of intermittent or long-term poverty are increasing. The increase in cases of chronicity is alarming: more than one in four assisted people (26.7%) lives in a condition of stable and prolonged hardship.

"The Statistical Report", underlines the director of Caritas Italiana, Don Marco Pagniello, "delivers us the stories of people we meet every day in our services. It is not just about numbers, but about women and men who belong to our communities. The data help us understand, but they are not enough on their own. They ask us to go beyond a superficial reading, beyond sociological analysis. At stake are the lives of those who remain on the margins and are often invisible. In the folds of a reality marked by contradictions and fragility, there is room for an appeal to the entire community, questioned in depth in its vocation to co-responsibility. We choose to stand on the thresholds, to inhabit them, to take care of them, to promote processes that do not stop at the emergency, but open up paths of possible change. This is our responsibility, but also our hope".