Who are the Italians who call themselves “middle class” today? According to the Cida-Censis report published on 22 May 2025, they represent the relative majority of the population: 66.1% are recognized in this social range. But behind this self-perception is hidden an increasingly unstable condition. Over the past ten years, the middle class has seen erode one’s wealth real, with a collapse of the medium-capita medium heritage of 19.7%. To weigh are not only inflation and dear-life, but also a tax system considered excessively heavy by large bands of workers and families.
In fact, more and more Italians perceive Too many taxes at work employee and a public welfare unable to respond to essential needs. Families with children suffer more suffering. Half of parents belonging to the middle class fear that the new generations will have worse living conditions. Between fears for the future there is the increase in daily expenses and pension uncertainty. Thus the search for alternative solutions is growing, such as health policies, supplementary funds and private social security.
Who is the middle class?
66.1% of Italians are autonomously placed in the middle class, while only 5.7% are defined as “wealthy” and 28.2% are recognized in the “popular” band. The middle class, therefore, continues to represent the idea of balance, stability, feeling good with the right. But today more than ever, this identity is tested by economic data.
From 2014 to 2024, the average real heritage of the central deciles, those that historically correspond to the so -called “medium -high class”, decreased by 19.7%. To this is added a fort of injustice, so much so that 74.2% of employees belonging to the middle class consider to deserve a higher salary, because their skills are not adequately recognized.
“Research shows that over two thirds of Italians feels belonging to the middle class. A vital protagonist of the Italian society, but for too long for difficult to adapt” – he underlined Giorgio De RitaSecretary General of Censis – “protecting and relaunching it is today an essential choice for the growth of the country”.
Pensioners are also part of this social group. In a society that ages, in fact, pensioners can no longer be considered as a separate group. On the contrary, their self-perception tells a strong sense of belonging: the 69.1% of Italian pensioners It is defined as average class, as well as 65.4% of the elderly. This is not just a statistical data, but the reflection of the history of our country: these generations have fully experienced the post -war economic expansion phase and have been the protagonists of it. They therefore contributed to building the model of consumption, well -being and social mobility which for decades has represented the heart of Italian identity and which we see today in crisis.
Think less about one’s future
If in the past the average Italian class was distinguished by a strong projection towards the futurethe idea of building savings, investment, education, and social security, today this orientation seems to have weakened. According to the Cida-Censis report, only 37.6% of those who define themselves in the middle class think about their future very frequently, against 42.1% of the popular class and almost 44% of the wealthy.
It is a relevant cultural reversal: to be or want to become “medium class”, once, meant building one’s future, in the family and in society, with the idea that the commitment of the present would bring luck tomorrow. Today, however, this trust seems to fail.
This drop in attention to tomorrow, both personal and collective, tells a loss of trust (which is reflected in consumption) for growth at work, merit and savings. A Mind-Style which has marked entire generations and which now risks dissolving, leaving room for one more resigned vision and a present to be managed.
When public welfare is no longer enough
The perception of decline does not concern only income and consumption, but also the quality of public services. Over 40% of the Italian Ceto Italians report a worsening welfare In the last three years and 55.2% consider it “insufficient” to cover essential performance such as health, school and assistance.
In response to a public system under pressure, many families have chosen to activate supplementary tools:
- 44.9% have at least an additional coverage such as health policies, pension funds or protections for non self -sufficiency
- 21.3% signed two or more solutions.
It is the sign, reads the report, of a parallel pillar of social security that joins (and sometimes replaces) the public one, also driven by the aging of the population and by the amplification of the demand for protection.
But perhaps the most revealing data is that of intentions. In fact, those who have no tools of supplementary welfare Often he would like to activate them, but he cannot afford it. Among those who identify themselves as a middle class:
- 36.5% would like to sign an supplementary health policy;
- 33.3% would join a pension fund;
- 33.8% would like to cover Long Term Care, against non -self -sufficiency;
- 35.8% of employed hopes that their collective agreement provides for supplementary health protection.
An entire social band therefore tries to equip itself by itself, with a personal effort that has now taken on the form of a widespread and structural mobilization. So without a strengthening of collective protections, the risk is that welfare will also become question of income And no more of law.
More expenses for children
The most evident fracture is finally manifested in nuclei with children. According to the report, 50% of the parents of the middle class is convinced that the next generation will have a worst life quality of their own. Only 27.3% express trust in the future of their children. It is a fact that does not speak only of widespread anxiety, but of a real difficulty in guaranteeing access to education, health and social mobility.
Families, in fact, face an increasing load of invisible but essential expenses: from school repetitions to language courses, from fees for the university to contributions for private medical visits. Even the ecological transition, although shared in words, is experienced as a further aggravation: 68.5% of the middle class believes that I weigh too much on family budgets.
Mario Mantovani Cuzzillain conclusion, underlines the real political match to play:
The time of analyzes is over. Net choices are needed: a fiscal reform that lightens the employee work, a revaluation of pensions, a serious struggle for evasion. It is 70% of Italians to ask for less gross income taxes, we cannot ignore it.
