In Messina, the area with the greatest potential difficulty for families is district III. In this area, the share of households with children in which the reference person is up to 64 years old and there are no employed or retired members reaches 5.4%, a figure higher than the municipal average which stands at 4.2%. An opposite situation is recorded in the IV district, where the percentage drops to 3.3%.
Early school dropout
The phenomenon of early school dropouts affects 14.6% of Messina young people aged between 18 and 24, who have interrupted their studies with a middle school diploma at most. A condition that more markedly affects families who are disadvantaged from an educational and social point of view. In fact, among children of parents without a diploma, the share rises to 24.8%.
The difference of 10.2 percentage points compared to the overall figure places Messina in second place among the large Italian cities, immediately after Cagliari. At a territorial level, school dropout reaches 20% in district III, while it is much lower in district VI with 8.4%. Among the children of people without a diploma, the phenomenon is more widespread once again in constituency III (28.2%) and less incisive in constituency VI (17%).
The Neet risk among young people
For those who leave school early, the risk of social exclusion increases, in particular the condition of NEET, i.e. young people who do not study or work. In Messina, the share of boys and girls between 15 and 29 years old in this situation is equal to 28.1%.
The differences between the constituencies are smaller, but still remain significant: they go from 32.8% in constituency III to 24.7% in constituency IV. Values which, as highlighted by the Openpolis dossier, remain high overall and indicate the need for targeted interventions on an educational and social level.