Sardinia maintains its fourteenth position in the Welfare Italia Index 2024, confirming itself as the best region in the South for the effectiveness and responsiveness of the welfare system.
The study, conducted by the think tank “Welfare, Italia” in collaboration with The European House – Ambrosetti and the Unipol Group, analyses various indicators relating to social policies, healthcare, social security and training.
Among the most positive data, the Island stands out for its commitment to labor policies , rising to second place for regional public spending in this sector, equal to 3.5% of GDP, a value higher than the national average of 2.6%. On the education front, it also records an improvement, climbing one position and arriving fifth for public spending destined for training, which represents 4.6% of the regional GDP, compared to the 3.6% of the Italian average.
Another positive signal comes from childcare services: Sardinia reaches eighth place for the number of places in authorized nursery schools for every 100 children between 0 and 2 years old, with a figure of 30.7 compared to the national average of 26.1.
But some critical issues also emerge . School dropout remains a significant problem: with 17.3% of students dropping out of school, the region ranks 19th, well above the national average of 10.5%. In terms of female employment, Sardinia ranks twentieth for the incidence of involuntary part-time work, with 23.4% of female workers forced to reduce their hours due to a lack of full-time alternatives, while at a national level the figure stops at 15.6%. Participation in supplementary pensions is also low, with only 28% of workers participating, compared to the Italian average of 36.9%.
As regards the labour market in general, Sardinia remains stable in 17th place both for the share of young people who neither study nor work (22.8% against the national 18%), and for the unemployment rate, which stands at 10.1%, while the Italian average is 7.7%.
Despite some difficulties, the region shows positive signs in strategic sectors such as work, education and childcare services, confirming itself as the most virtuous in the South in the national welfare panorama.
