Esiste una specificità demografica del Meridione?

Historical studies have always underlined deep differences in the demography of southern Italy respect to that of the northern and central part of the country. This paper is particularly interested in discovering if nowadays the Southern demographic dynamics are finally comparable with the recent evolution of the North and the Centre of the Peninsula. We examine specifically the different evolutions of mortality, fertility and family formation. The hypothesis is that beneath the similarities shown by the data there are economic and anthropological differences.