Overview
- In Italy, billionaire wealth rose by €54.6 billion in the past year to €307.5 billion held by 79 individuals, while 91% of 2010–June 2025 wealth gains went to the richest 5%.
- Oxfam ranks Italy 20th out of 27 EU countries for income equality after a 2023 deterioration, and estimates that in 2024 around 2.2 million families (5.7 million people) lived in absolute poverty.
- Globally, Oxfam reports that twelve individuals now hold more wealth than the poorest half of humanity and that billionaire fortunes hit $18.3 trillion in 2025, up $2.5 trillion in a year.
- Oxfam warns that extreme concentration risks democratic backsliding, noting far higher odds of public office for billionaires and linking greater inequality to a sevenfold increase in erosion risk.
- A widely republished ranking placing Milan among the cities with the highest share of millionaires is disputed over opaque New World Wealth data used by Henley & Partners, as experts call for better monitoring and fairer fiscal rules including reform of inheritance taxation and the flat-tax regime for the very rich.