Italians are responding to the high cost of education with loans. In the first eight months of the year, 220 million euros in personal loans were granted to cover the costs of education. A real boom. And, surprisingly, the identikit of the applicants is not what you would expect. But they are women, mothers, millennials. After the great growth in requests made to be able to take vacations (250 million euros, +2% on 2023), here comes this data on education to demonstrate that Italians are increasingly resorting to banks and credit companies for family expenses.
The analysis by Facile.it and Prestiti.it is clear: 220 million euros from January to August requested and granted for study reasons. The average amount of the 350 thousand requests examined is 6,685 euros, to be repaid in just over four years (53 installments). However, one request out of three (33.4%) is for loans of less than 3 thousand euros. This means that parents are asking for loans not only for university, but also to cover the “lower” costs of the first levels of education, from nursery school to private high school.
The surprise comes if you look at who is asking for loans for study. Women and mothers. 45% of the requests for education reasons came from them. And it is surprising especially if you consider that among those who resort to generic loans, women usually represent only 30% of the cases. So +15% if it is about training.
The average age of applicants for education funding has increased, from 35.5 years in 2023 to just over 37 years this year. This “aging” is due to a decrease in the share of younger applicants. Those under 25, for example, have fallen from 24% to 19% of the total, while the percentage of those aged 25 to 34 (33%) and 45 to 54 (18%) has increased.
Women and mothers are therefore at the forefront of planning investments for their children’s future, while the cost of education continues to increase. Just think of the blow that hits families every year as the first bell approaches. This year, up to 1,300 euros will be spent per child, with increases that even touch 15% for backpacks and school supplies and 8% for textbooks. The cost of education weighs more and more on family budgets. In 2023, the average cost of educating children, from nursery to university, was 135 thousand euros, compared to 130 thousand in 2022 (+3.7%). According to calculations made by Moneyfarm, the total cost of educating a child ranges from a minimum of 55 thousand to a maximum of 730 thousand euros, with a total increase of between 2,200 and 38,000 euros compared to 2022. These are increases that range from 100 to 1,900 euros per year depending on the type of education (public or private, with or without extra-curricular activities, with or without experience abroad). And in 2024 it will grow. The answer? The increase in the use of loans, as has been happening for some years now for travel.
