2023 Report by the "Welfare, Italia" Think Tank

With a message from the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and the support of the Italian Prime Minister, the Welfare Italia Forum 2023 opened today in Rome, at the today at the Corsie Sistine di Santo Spirito in Sassia.

The 2023 edition of the “Welfare, Italia” Think Tank Report was presented at the Forum, supported by Unipol Gruppo with the cooperation of The European House - Ambrosetti.

Welfare spending trends, ongoing demographic and wage trends, the impact of inflation on the demand for social protection, the medium-long term sustainability of the welfare system and the role of private parties and social investments are just some of the issues debated during the Forum presided over and chaired by Antonio Polito (Columnist and Deputy editor, Corriere della Sera).

For over ten years, the Think Tank has functioned as a place for the analysis, examination and reflection of welfare matters, open to discussion among the main public and private stakeholders: decision-makers, national and local government representatives, social partners, banks and pension and aid funds and representatives of companies, workers, universities and the voluntary sector.

• Strong imbalance towards amount spent on pensions which absorbs 50.3% of total resources. Pension spending is followed by healthcare spending (21.5%), then social policies (16.9%) and education (11.3%).
• Birth rates continue to slide under the 400,000 threshold: in 2022, the number of births that have been decreasing since 2014 continued, falling to a new record low: 393,000 new births.
• Welfare Italia Index 2023: Autonomous Province of Bolzano (83.3 points), Autonomous Province of Trento (81.4 points) and Emilia-Romagna (76.3 points) are the first for responsiveness in terms of welfare.
• The “Welfare Italia” Think Tank tracks 4 priority actions to support development of the welfare system:
  • define a comprehensive plan to reverse demographic trends through policies that bring Italy into line with European best practices;
  • support the role of the national healthcare system, increasing investments and taking full advantage of the supplementary component;
  • increase the instruments and flexibility of the supplementary pension system;
  • launch a plan to develop skills and boost the role of job centres.

Read the complete Press Release.