Quality of life, the district of Varese is losing points

The district is becoming wealthier and wealthier and the levels of the demography, society and justice are also good. However, the situation is getting worse, as far as environment, culture and free time are concerned.

Overall, the district of Varese is losing points in the ranking of Sole24Ore, which shows the quality of life of the 110 Italian districts in 2017: we have gone from the 52^nd to the 57^th place in the ranking made by the main business daily of the country.

The rankings are made by interpolating the data of six macro-indicators concerning as many areas: output and consumption, work and innovation, environment and services, demography and society, justice and safety, culture and free time. Here is, in detail, how we are doing.

OUTPUT AND CONSUMPTION – Overall, we are at the 16^th place and we are moving up the ladder. Here, the “strong point” is the average amount of the pensions, which amounts to €992 (Varese is at the 8^th place against the primacy of Milan, with an average of €1,116 per month). The average of the bank deposits is slightly over €17,000 (as always, the primacy is hold by Milan with €73,493). The GDP per capita is €26,500 and the expense of families for durables goods is €2,838 (at 8^th place after Prato with €3,109).

43 people out of 100 shop online (after Sondrio with more than 60 out of 100).

WORK AND INNOVATION – We are at the 67^th place, here is why. We are among the last districts as regards the registered enterprises (8 per 100 inhabitants), at the 102^nd place (even though Varese remains one of the districts of Lombardy with the highest density of enterprises per square kilometre). The percentage of the employment rate among people between the age of 15-64 is 65% (after Bolzano with 72%). There is a big gender pay gap (women’s salary 23% lower than men’s one, we are at the 86^th place) and the youth unemployment rate is 23.85% among people between the age of 15 and 29.

ENVIRONMENT AND SERVICES – Overall, we are at the 60^th place. In detail: the indicator of Legambiente “Urban Ecosystem” places the district of Varese at the 77^th place. However, the data on the percentage of discharges from hospitals, raise our standard: we are at the 14^th place. The expense pro capita for young, disabled and elderly people is €51 (in this ranking the primacy is hold by Livorno with €123.5), but we have an extremely high percentage of soil consumption (22.06%) on the total area (the first is Ogliastra with only 2.61%).

As far as the broadband Internet is concerned, the percentage of people with 30Mb is 23.6% (93.8% in Bari).

DEMOGRAPHY AND SOCIETY – The situation in this ranking is getting better as the district of Varese has reached the 38^th place. We are among the districts with the highest population density per square kilometre: 742.0 (105^th place) against 30.8 of Ogliastra. 7.8 people per 1,000 inhabitants were born. We have 72.9 graduates per 1,000 inhabitants between the age of 25 and 30 and almost 5 people per 100 foreign inhabitants become Italian citizens. The average number of years of study for the population of 25 years old is over 10.3 against 11.7 of Rome.

JUSTICE AND SAFETY – In a ranking of 110 districts, we are at the 46^th place and things are getting better. In the district of Varese we don’t “argue” much: in 2016 there were only 541 new legal cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Do you think this is a lot? In Reggio Calabria, which was placed last in the ranking, the new legal cases are almost 2,000. The situation is good also for the pending cases of over three years: they are only 11% of the total, in Messina, at the last place, they amount to 50%.

In the district of Varese the amount of robberies is 31.6 per 100,000 inhabitants (in Belluno the amount is 6.3. Naples with 212 and Milan with 115 are respectively the last and the second last of the ranking).

Always per 100,00 inhabitants: 209 computer frauds, 187 cases of mugging and pickpocketing, 393 burglaries (in Verbano Cusio Ossola there are only 11.3 and in Barletta Andria Trani, at the last place, 608.3).

CULTURE AND FREE TIME – We are at the 75^th place. Here as well, the indicator is per 100,000 inhabitants. We don’t have many libraries per 100,000 inhabitants: only 3.9 and this places us at the 104^th place, whereas the first, Massa, has 17.8. We also don’t have many seats in the movie theatres, just 1,166. We have 451 restaurants and bars (Olbia-Tempio is at the first the place with 1,144 because of the big tourists flows).

The expenditure of foreign travellers in our districts is €585 (per capita average). The first is Venice where travellers spend almost €3,700.

The registered Onlus are 26.4% per 100,000 inhabitants (in Rome, which is the first in the ranking, there are 80.2, in Ravenna only 6.6).