Confcommercio’s analysis: "Mandatory expenses ‘eat’ 42% of income"

In 2026 over 5,300 euros per capita for housing and 1,829 euros for energy, gas and fuels. In thirty years the prices of forced consumption they grew more than double compared to those of marketable consumption, with a top increase for energy of 211%.

This is what is revealed by an analysis carried out by the Confcommercio Research Office on the obligatory expenses of Italian families in the period 1995-2026.

The impact of consumption

Mandatory expenses, i.e. those linked to goods and services that families cannot do without, such as housing, energy, bills, healthcare, transport and insurance, continue to ‘eat up’ a very substantial portion of total family consumption with an incidence equal to 41.7% (+4.7% compared to 1995). On the other hand, among free expenditure, the share allocated to services is slightly increasing (+2.9%), while that for goods is decreasing (-7.6%).

Housing costs are confirmed as the largest cost item with 5,335 euros per capita (+72 euros compared to 2025) on the total obligatory expenses (equal to 9,693 euros); followed by insurance and fuel (2,310 euros) and energy (1,829 euros). The latter is, however, the component which, while maintaining a high impact on family budgets, has recorded the most significant reduction since 1995 (-1,231 euros), a consequence of lower household consumption as a response to rising prices, but also and above all of technological progress which has favored energy saving.

The greater impact of obligatory expenses on family budgets is determined above all by the different dynamics of increased prices much more rapidly than those of marketable goods and services: from 1995 to today, their index has grown by 140%, almost two and a half times compared to that of marketable goods (+57%) and one and a half times compared to services (+88.4%), with the peak reached by the energy, gas and fuel aggregate whose prices have grown by 211% in thirty years.