Italy: the country with the most relevant territorial inequality

According to Censis, the Italian institute for the socio-economic research, gap between rich Italian North and poor South is widening.

The southern regions of Italy recorded a 60% job loss, one family out of four was in poverty living conditions, between 2008 and 2012.

The factors that have weakened South of Italy's economy, according to Censis, are " unclear government plans, slow bureaucracy in the management of public resources, scarcely competitive infrastructures, a limited opening to foreign markets and a strong credit rationing."

GDP According to Censis, Gross Domestic Product in the South of Italy,  between  2007 and 2012, contracted by 10%, compared to 5,7% contraction in the Centre- North.  In 2007 Italian GDP was equal to 1.680 billion euros, five years later dropped to  1.567 billion euros.

Besides, Italy  is the country with the most relevant territorial inequality. The Centre-North, with a 31.124 euro GDP per capita, aligns itself with the richest Northern European countries, such as Germany, where the per capita GDP is  31.703. In the South of Italy, on the contrary, per capita incomes are lower than those in Greece (17.957 euros against 18. 454 euros.)

60% out of the 505.000 job losses in Italy, between 2008 and 2012, involved the South of Italy ( more than 300.000.)  One third of young people between 15 and 29, cannot find a job ( in Italy the rate hits 25%.)  The national average of women unemployment  is 11%, while in the South is 19%.

Graduate unemployment  average rate  is 6,7% in Italy, but 10% in the South.  Between 2007 and 2011, employed people in industries in the southern regions  fell by 15,5%, against the Centre-North 5,5% drop.

More than 7.600 manufacturing industries in the South got out of the market between 2009 and 2012, with an  5,1%  average drop.

The most troubled regions Calabria, Sicily, Campania  and Puglia show the highest inequality rates.

26% of families in the South are poor compared to the 15,7% of the national average. In the southern regions 39 families out of 100 are on the borderline of poverty, against the 24,6% of the national average.

School drop- out rate, 21,2%, is also higher in the South, it is 16,6% in the Centre-North

Despite the South spends more on education than the rest of the country, the NEET population ( those young people who are not in education, employment or training,) is 31,9% higher than the national average, with alarming figures in Campania (35,2%,) and in Sicily(35,7%.)