Campania is the poorest region in Italy: nearly one in two citizens is vulnerable and one in eight forgoes healthcare.

Campania remains Italy's poorest region. This is no longer a surprising statistic, but its magnitude and impact are worsening every year. The new regional dossier on poverty in Campania, presented by Caritas in Caserta and based on official sources—Istat, Eurostat, the Ministry of Health, Agenas, and Gimbe—reveals a region where vulnerability is no longer a marginal condition: it affects 43,5% of the population, nearly half of the residents.

This figure alone would give a sense of the problem. But it's just the tip of the iceberg.

Refusal of care and the health gap

The most disturbing number is the one related to health: 13,5% of Campanians give up on medical treatment, compared to a national average of 9,9%.
A percentage that, translated into everyday life, means that one in eight is forced to avoid specialist visits, diagnostic tests, and therapies. Not because they don't need them, but because they can't afford them.

Bishop Antonio De Luca, delegate of the Campania Episcopal Conference for Charity Services, explains it clearly: "Demand for healthcare assistance is growing in our centers; many complain about the distance from the facilities and the high cost of transportation." This situation especially affects the inland areas, which are increasingly isolated and increasingly depopulated.

The final effect is devastating: in Campania people live two years less than in the rest of the country (80,9 years versus 82,7).

Endless waiting lists and a flight to the private sector

The report denounces interminable waiting lists, structural deficiencies, insufficient staffing, and a progressive shift of citizens toward private healthcare. A paradox in one of Italy's least wealthy regions: private healthcare is paid for because public healthcare isn't working.

But here too, another disparity emerges: per capita healthcare spending in Campania is €1.910, almost €320 less than the national average, with an overall gap of over €1,7 billion.
Fewer resources, fewer services, more poverty: a vicious circle.

Too low incomes, fragile jobs, depopulation

Per capita income remains among the lowest in the country: €18.500 compared to €31 in the rest of Italy. This almost structural gap has persisted for decades and continues to widen.

Campania has fewer employed people than the national and European averages. The labor market is characterized by instability, precarious contracts, and low wages. Added to this are the emptying inland areas, where young people leave in search of opportunities and where elderly people remain, increasingly alone, deprived of essential services.

Why is poverty growing? A reflection.

Rising poverty isn't just about economic hardship: it's the result of a system that's weakening on multiple fronts.

Fragile economic structure
Campania continues to depend on slow-moving sectors, with limited industrialization and a fragmented manufacturing base. Growth is neither stable nor inclusive.

Precarious work and low wages
The problem isn't just employment, but the quality of employment: insufficient wages, fixed-term contracts, involuntary part-time work. Even those who work often struggle to escape their vulnerability.

Insufficient public services
Especially in healthcare and in inland areas: schools, transportation, and distant hospitals. This generates additional costs, isolation, and the sacrifice of fundamental rights.

Depopulation and aging
Young people are emigrating, leaving behind empty and increasingly unattractive territories. This is a process that further impoverishes the economic fabric.

Inequalities accumulated over time
Campania has suffered decades of infrastructure delays, uneven resource management, and a lack of a long-lasting and coherent development strategy.

Poverty in Campania isn't just a condition: it has become a trajectory, a destiny that can only be reversed by simultaneously addressing welfare, healthcare, employment, education, and mobility.

The call of Caritas

Faced with this scenario, Caritas launches a clear appeal: "A form of minimum income support is necessary." Not as welfare, but as a tool for dignity and access to rights, as is the case in the most advanced democracies.

This call cannot go unheeded, because Campania can no longer afford to live with such dramatic numbers. Poverty has become a structural emergency: addressing it is a collective, political, and social responsibility.