Over 18 million Italians at risk of poverty: report

ROME, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The number of Italians at risk of poverty has risen from 15 million to 18.1 million people in a decade, according to a new report by CGIA think tank out Saturday.

Italy has population of about 60 million, including just over five million legal immigrants, according to 2017 data from ISTAT national statistics bureau.

Between 2006 and 2016, the "risk of poverty or social exclusion" rose by four percentage points to affect 30 percent of Italy's population, the report said.

This compares to a European average of 23.1 percent, with the risk of poverty actually dropping in France and Germany in the same 10 years, according to the think tank based in the city of Mestre near Venice.

"Unemployment remains above 11 percent, compared to six percent before the (economic) crisis (of 2008)," CGIA Research Coordinator Paolo Zabeo said in a statement. "Investments fell by 20 percent and the risk of poverty and social exclusion has reached alarming levels."

In Italy's southern regions, every other person is at risk of "serious deprivation", with peaks of 55.6 percent in Sicily, 49.9 percent in Campania and 46.7 percent in Calabria, according to the CGIA study. Enditem