I divari regionali in Italia sulla base degli indicatori sociali (1871-2001)

This work presents and discusses some of the most important social indicators (height, education, life expectancy and human development index), referring to the Italian regions for the period spanning from 1871 to 2001. According to the data, there was a catching-up process of Southern Italy toward the Centre North, which started by the end of the XIXth century and came to a halt only in the last decades of the XXth century. In order to explain this trend, it is argued that the most backward regions have “passively” benefited from the improvements in social fields, such as nutrition, education and longevity, which spread through almost the whole world during this period.