On the whole, this year the Italian people are feeling “gloomy”; scared by global events that threaten to compromise their present or future situations from one moment to the next, the annual state-of-the-nation report by research institute Censis said on Friday.

These findings arrive on the heels of a dramatic sequence of global events: Covid, the war in Ukraine, rising inflation and the energy crisis.

This confluence of societal difficulties has incited in Italians "a renewed demand for certain prospects of well-being", as well as the conviction that "instances of equity can no longer be dismissed as unrealistic expectations fomented by some demagogic political leader."

New fears are growing: at this point in time, 84.5 per cent of Italians, particularly young people and college graduates, believe that even geographically distant events could change their lives; 61 per cent fear that World War III could break out, 59 per cent the atomic bomb, 58 per cent that Italy itself may go to war.

More than half of Italians, moreover, fear that they will become victims of crime, although in the last decade reports are down 25.4 per cent, voluntary murders are down 42.4 per cent; as are robberies (-48.2 per cent) and burglarised houses (-47.5 per cent).

However, sexual violence (+12.5 per cent) and extortion (+55.2 per cent) have increased since 2012, as have computer crimes.

An aging trend of impoverishment has also been detected in the country: in 2021, there were 1.9 million households in absolute poverty, or 7.5 per cent of the total population, up 1.1 points from 2019, for a total of nearly 5.6 million individuals.

The 56th Censis annual report also said that Italian people were increasingly less disposed to follow influencers and lust for luxury, and were more likely to become indignant about inequality and ostentatious displays of wealth being flouted on social media.

The report is said to be a snapshot of a nation that has “entered the period of post-populism.”

The dossier also highlighted that Italy is at the bottom of the rankings in Europe as it pertains to youth employment, education and/or vocational training (NEET).

It also focused on the nation's declining birth rate, and Italy’s health system, which is currently facing significant staff shortages.