According to the latest update Istat On the spending of the municipalities for social services, published on 24 September 2025, in 2022 the local administrations spent a total of 10.9 billion euros for social and socio-educational services, this which in relation to GDP remains stopped at 0.46%, but which hides very marked territorial imbalances. In fact, the average spending per inhabitant varies a lot from north to south, and traces a picture that once again penalizes the territories of the South.
In the face of a national average of 150 euros per person, the regional data show persistent economic and infrastructure inequalities, recording the peak with an expense of 607 euros per inhabitant in the autonomous province of Bolzano and, on the contrary, in Calabria the opposite extreme, with a small value of just 38 euros per capita.
Because spending in social services varies from north to south
Compared to 2021, the overall expenditure of the municipalities in a year has grown by 5.8%. However, this increase was not enough to fill the north-south gap, which remains structural.
It should be specified, however, that the Italian territorial welfare is largely financed by local resources, or by the tax capacity of the Municipalities and the Regions. And in the North the percentage of expenditure that is financed directly by the resources generated internally by the territory exceeds 60%, while in the south it drops to just over 30%.
Therefore, the territories with less available income manage to collect less resources, and consequently offer less services. With a huge waste, as confirmed by the data Istat Updated, so those who were born in Reggio Calabria receive, in terms of services and support, less than a tenth of how much their peer can expect in Bolzano (where the shopping for the social is over 15 times the Calabrian one).
How and where the money of local welfare is spent
On average, the expenditure for social and welfare services in Italy varies between the 78 euros of the South and the 207 euros of the North East, passing for the 165 euros in the center, the 162 euros in the North West and the 144 euros of the islands.
At the regional level, the differences are even more marked and the minimum value is precisely that of 38 euros pro-capita in Calabria, while the maximum one is 607 euros for the autonomous province of Bolzano.
In addition, the average per capita expenditure is decidedly higher in the cities with more than 50 thousand inhabitants (196 euros), while keeping under the national average for smaller municipalities.
The differentials are further expanded if the width of the municipalities and the geographical area is combined, so the pro-bench-capacity average varies from the minimum of 51 euros of the smaller municipalities (up to 2 thousand inhabitants) of the South at maximum 292 euros of the largest municipalities (with over 50 thousand inhabitants) of the North East. Furthermore, in the largest municipalities in the South the level of pro-capita expenditure (102 euros) is less than that recorded in the smaller municipalities of the North Est. (220 euros).
The particularly high value that characterizes the expense in the small municipalities of the islands (235 euros) is due to the specificity of Sardinia, where the expenditure for services intended for people with disabilities and the elderly resident in small towns is high.
If you look at the composition of the expenditure, from the report Istat It emerges that:
- 37.3% of resources are intended for children, families and early childhood services;
- 27.5% to the assistance of people with disabilities;
- 14.8% to the elderly;
- 9% to the contrast of poverty and social exclusion.
The impact on citizens
In 2022 there were about 2.3 million citizens taken over by professional social services, with an increase of 6.6% compared to the previous year. However, also due to the disparities that are reflected directly on people’s lives, while in the north the users served are 5.2 per 100 inhabitants, in the South there are just 2.6.
It is not just a number, it is a fracture in accessing fundamental rights: a southern citizen has half of the chances of finding a social worker who helps him compared to one of the North.
