According to a recent analysis by the Confcommercio Research Office, the share of income that families spend on so-called mandatory expenses has increased over the years. These are essential products and services which, over time, have absorbed almost 42% of total consumer spending. Today, in fact, much of the available money is tied up before we can even decide how to spend it.
Where does the Italians’ money go?
Costs related to home, bills, fuel, insurance, healthcare and transport are just some of the obligatory expenses that a typical Italian family has to face today. These items, which in 1995 represented 37% of consumption, according to Confcommercio in 2026 rose to 41.7%.
However, this trend cannot be explained by the fact that Italians have proportionally increased the quantity of goods and services purchased. The main factor that has pushed up the weight of obligatory expenses is in fact the different dynamics of rising prices. It is no coincidence that from 1995 to today:
- the price index of mandatory expenditure increased by 140.8%;
- the prices of marketable goods grew by 57.4% and those of marketable services by 88.4%.
In fact, many times we spend more to buy the same things, if not even less.
The ranking of fixed costs: which ones weigh the most
Taking into account which obligatory expenses weigh most on family budgets:
- in first place in the ranking is the home, whose expenditure in 2026 reached 5,335 euros per year per person, with an increase of 75 euros compared to 2025, equal to 1.4%. This category includes the various components linked to housing and its management, starting from the costs necessary to own and maintain a home;
- in second place we find insurance and fuel, with a total expenditure of around 2,310 euros per year per person, and sensitive to the trend in energy prices and the mobility of families;
- third place is occupied by energy, gas and fuels, for which expenditure reaches 1,829 euros per person in 2026. Even if in the period of time considered technological progress and greater efficiency have produced savings quantified at 1,231 euros, the cost of this item remains still higher, and the reason is linked above all to the very strong growth in prices. In fact, over thirty years, they increased by 211%, marking the highest growth among the main components analysed.
Italians do not give up consumption, but their priorities change
In terms of incidence, in 2026 it is estimated that 58.3% of consumption will be for marketable goods and services overall, which represent that part of spending on which families have greater freedom of choice: from clothing to technology, from entertainment to leisure services.
Usually, when the costs of running the house, bills and transport increase, it is precisely these items that are most exposed to cuts or postponement. However, the analysis highlights the resilience of families, who, faced with the increase in incompressible costs, have chosen instead to:
- reduce overall spending;
- remodulate the composition of consumption, above all containing some traditional categories and trying to preserve other expenses considered more important.
However, the picture is not completely negative for marketable services. Experts, in fact, estimate a growth of 1.9% in the quantities purchased in 2026, equal to approximately 98 euros per resident.
