Milano, migranti, working poor e famiglie in crisi: ecco la mappa della povertà in città

Behind the numbers are stories of loneliness, fragility, and precariousness. This is the snapshot painted by the Caritas 2024 Report on poverty in the Diocese of Milan: nearly 19,000 people sought help from counseling centers, 10% more than last year. Women remain the majority, but the number of men is also increasing. The data on the elderly is particularly striking: today, over 12% of those assisted are over 65, a figure that has quadrupled in ten years. This poverty is caused not only by economic hardship, but also by isolation and the lack of family and social networks. Alongside them are the young: nearly one in five is under 35, a figure that is constantly growing and which in official statistics has been halved. Migrants represent 65% of the total, with an increase also linked to new waves of arrivals from Peru, which alone accounts for over 23% of foreign clients. And the so-called working poor are growing: today, almost one in four works, but on wages too low to live decently. The report thus reveals a changing poverty landscape: two-thirds of those affected have been trapped in poverty for years, while a third are newcomers, bringing with them different and increasingly difficult-to-address fragilities. This phenomenon continues to erode Milan and its surrounding areas, and challenges the ability of institutions and the community to respond.