Italy’s housewives are the most “desperate” in Europe – with growing rates of dissatisfaction on everything from child care to social welfare, according to a new Italian study.

The survey of 4,000 women across Europe carried out by the think-tank Women and Quality of Life showed that 76 per cent of Italian housewives were unhappy with their lot – 2.5 percentage points higher than the result last year.

The rate among Spanish housewives was 63 per cent, French ones were at 57 per cent, British ones were at 51 per cent and German ones at 47 per cent.

The group carrying out the survey is headed up by celebrity psychologist Serenella Salomoni and publishes a variety of polls on women’s issues.

Forty-six per cent of Italian housewives polled said they were concerned about the economic crisis and the decrease in their purchasing power, as well as the lack of part-time work opportunities to ease the work-life balance.

There were also 24 per cent up in arms about poor social welfare, 23 per cent upset about a lack of kindergartens and 21 per cent about access to health care.

One in two women said that looking back on it they would not have married and two out of three said they would not have had children.