If you do not have children in Italy, one of the reasons why is simply because they cost too much. According to the Italian insurance website Facile.it, in the first year of life a child costs over 3,500 euros. And that's only the beginning. They say that children are life changing, so here are some things to consider if you want to start to budget for an extra member in the family.
The survey carried out for Facile.it by mUp Research and Norstat shows that, over the last 3 years, about 210,000 families in Italy, or 13.3% of the sample analysed, have asked for a loan to support the costs related to pregnancy or the first year of life of a child. And this is a continuing trend: between nursery, babysitters and various expenses, external financial support is becoming more and more necessary.
According to the survey, things regarded as "ordinary" expenses related to the 9 months of pregnancy alone, such as visits, blood tests, medicine, clothing, prams, etc., on average add up to 3,411 euros for the first child and 2,754 euros from the second child onwards. The first pregnancy, in short, seems to cost 24% more.
This is a figure that can have a considerable impact on a family budget, also taking into account the career repercussions that a child can have on a woman's life. In 52.6% of cases, in fact, savings and state contributions were not sufficient and therefore people turned to the help of third parties: grandparents, in 43.5% of cases, but also loans.
Even before the birth of the child, 125,000 families in Italy applied for a loan, 5.2% of cases were from a family member and 3.4% of cases from a credit company. These figures don't include those who, with the new entry into the family, decided to buy a new car (22.3%), renovate a house (12.4%), buy it (9.3%) or rent a bigger one (7.4%): these are all situations in which further financing could potentially be requested.
After the birth, the costs for the baby continue to rise: nappies, baby food, clothes, visits and more bring the bill to 3,577 euros for the first child and 2,811 euros from the second onwards. Again, almost 40% of those who took part in the survey said they had met these costs only with the support of third parties and as before, it was often grandparents or close relatives who bore the costs out of their own pocket (29.1%), while about 155,000 families asked for a loan (9.8%), divided between those who turned to a family member (6.2%) or a credit company (4.6%).
Things don't seem to improve much as the child starts to grow up, with yet more expenses related to nursery and babysitting: the survey concluded that in 2019 less than one in three families had access to a public childcare facility. Therefore, 40% needed paid solutions: 31.7% enrolled their child in a private nursery, 12.5% chose a babysitter. Consequently, in 2019 Italians spent, on average, 531 euros per month on private nurseries, with amounts varying between 639 euros per month in the north-west and 430 euros per month in the south.
In order to be able to pay all these necessary expenses, 8.5% of those interviewed, equal to more than 41,000 families, asked for a loan from family members or credit companies; a percentage that reaches 15% in the north-west regions, where costs are much higher. Slightly lower was the expense incurred by those who chose to hire a babysitter; in 2019 Italian families who used this service paid, on average, 464 euros per month.