As of 2025, Italy’s health indicators are on a generally improving trend: life expectancy at birth reaches 83.7 years, a record, but access to care for Italians is shrinking. Long waiting lists for services funded by the National Health Service and the difficulty in reaching private facilities discourage people from taking care of their health, sometimes leading them to skip consulting specialists and family doctors.
These providers are under pressure, with an average of over 1,500 patients each. This is the dichotomous picture of positives and challenges that emerges from the thirteenth edition of the Institute of Statistics’ BES report on equitable and sustainable well-being in Italy (Istat BES).
The Health Status of Italy
The level of well-being is generally good but with many issues and gaps to address. Health indicators in the health domain are improving in the short and long term, driven by rising birth life expectancy and by more people living 65 years or older without major limitations, marking a notable decline in mortality, particularly cancer-related, among ages 20-64, and a reduction in sedentary behavior.
Longevity, while a positive development—fostered by scientific progress, better management of chronic conditions, and healthier living conditions, impacts mortality from neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia, and the decline in the indicator of adequate nutrition that increases the risk burden of other associated conditions, like sarcopenia in older adults and the related socio-health costs.
Further BES report concerns highlight a reduced edge for young people in mental health, though there is improvement among older age groups. In terms of diet, the adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables declines, especially among women, though levels are higher among graduates; overall, intake remains insufficient. In addition to this unhealthy lifestyle, smoking has risen over the past decade, particularly among women; risky alcohol consumption persists and remains higher in the North. Finally, road traffic mortality—higher among the young—remains steady for ages 15 to 34, with more deaths among men.
Social Relationships
Family and friendships are a core component of individual well-being. Personal relationship networks act as a support resource that complements the economic and cultural capital each person possesses. In the last year, five indicators of social relations improved (friendships, people to count on, social participation, volunteering, non-profit organizations), but over the long term only the non-profit organizations indicator remains on an upward path. Satisfaction with family relationships, compared with earlier data, remains stable in 2025 and even grows in the Islands.
Having people to count on beyond the immediate family is an indicator of the resilience of social relationships at the local level. In 2025, the share of people aged 14 and older who say they can count on friends, neighbors, or non-cohabiting relatives in times of need reaches 82.9%, a figure stable relative to 2024.
Participation in social life is growing, especially among women, defined as involvement in activities promoted by clubs and associations—recreational, cultural, political, civic, sporting, religious, or spiritual—that help strengthen community cohesion, foster interpersonal relationships, a sense of belonging, and social solidarity. There is a modest rise in the share of volunteers, more pronounced among those aged 35 to 44. Education adds value, making citizens more satisfied with their relationships, more trusting, and more active.
Subjective Well-being
Measuring the population’s well-being also means understanding how people rate their own lives, their satisfaction with leisure time, and their view of the future. Personal perceptions and judgments influence the way people approach life and seize opportunities. In 2025, the share of people aged 14 and older who report being very satisfied with their life (scores 8 to 10) continues to rise, from 46.3% in 2024 to 47.6%.
Also rising slightly is the share who report being very or fairly satisfied with their leisure time, from 66.4% in 2024 to 67.3%. For future outlook indicators, there are no significant changes compared with 2024. 30.8% of people aged 14 and older expect their personal situation to improve over the next five years, while 12.0% expect it to worsen.
On a longer horizon (2014-2025), subjective well-being indicators continue to improve, except for satisfaction with leisure time, which does not show a clearly defined trend. Life satisfaction improves among the elderly, but with wide gender differences that disadvantage women. Higher levels of satisfaction are observed among residents of small towns, with positive subjective well-being more common among those with higher educational attainment.
Innovation, Research, Creativity, and Cultural Investment
For this domain, most long-term indicators show a trend toward improvement, except in the last year when only half (5 out of 10) are positive. For example, the mobility of young Italian graduates (ages 25-39) continues to register a positive balance, and the intensity of research—i.e., the share of R&D spending in GDP—in 2024 reached 1.40%, a value still below the European average (2.26%), but modestly higher than 2024 (1.37%) and 2014 (1.33%).
In 2025, investments in intellectual property continue to rise with a four-point increase in the last year (38 points since the start of the period), driven by the positive momentum of R&D investments and those in technologies (software and databases). Positive aspects include more patent filings, especially in the North, and firm-level innovation driven by improvements in business processes. Finally, Internet use among those over sixty-five continues to spread, but age-related differences persist.
Abbonati a Karla Miller
