Why is South of Italy Poor

Have you ever wondered why the northern region of Italy is significantly richer than the south? Despite being part of the same country, the two regions have a major contrast in economic wealth. In today's video, we delve into the historical, cultural, and geographic factors that have contributed to dividing the North and the South to the extremes.

🔖 MY SOCIAL PAGES

💭 Find more interesting stuff on:

All videos are based on publicly available information unless otherwise noted.

[idunnoman]

As much as I can agree with some of what The Infographics Show said, I think they exaggerated the poverty conditions in southern Italy a little too much. It's not the third world guys, people are not starving in the streets. Sure, there is a serious problem with development in the region, but it's not like you have to carry a gun when you leave home because you risk your life, the area is safe

[justauser]

As an Italian that focused specifically on the History of Southern Italy I can say that this video has extremely simplified the history of Southern Italy in a way that is very misleading, putting aside the many mistakes on ancient and medival history, it describes modern Italian history almost as a variant of American Slavery, and depicts the mafia as some sort of rebel group fighting against the north as if it was a Star Wars Movie. Also the way that the south is portrayed in terms of poverty is extremely americanized, it's not the same poverty of LA or Philadelphia, with drug addicts in the streets. Rather its young unemployed people living with their parents, or people living off agriculture or seasonal jobs or living with govirnament money, many rural villages are usually peaceful, clean and well kept (a far cry from what is shown in the video). Also street kids are extremely are and never seen them and those few are concentrated in the peripheries of Milan (mostly immigrants) and Naples. The mafia exists both in the north and in the south, and they work in the shadow and mostly do financial scams with the govirnament or businesses far away from tourists or normal people. I can say that this video can give some sense of the situation, but made alot of mistakes and looks like a romanticized caricature than a factual description of the real situation.

[gialt]

"Poor" for Western European standards...the poorest region of Italy (Calabria) has the HDI of Argentina. Would literally be one of the wealthiest and most developed areas of Latin America. Perspectives...

[dayros]

While the main topic of the video, the economic divide between North-central Italy and the South is true, the depiction of the Southern parts of the country as a dilapidated wasteland with homeless people everywhere were hilarious. I’m from central Italy and go for holidays to the south every year, it’s one of the most beautiful place on earth, with stunning cities and charming little towns full of history. It is also very safe, like the rest of Italy in general, far safer than most other western countries.

[vires-et-honore]

I've been to Calabria several times. Never saw anyone eating from a trash can, or begging, or living in dire poverty. I did see a lot of hardworking people (the kind that helped build America), beautiful countryside and lots of great food. Interesting that all those northern Italian captains of industry didn't think the south was worthy of investment, so that many southerners left and contributed to America's success as well as their own. Such irony.

[tommoncrieff]

In 40 years of travelling in Italy I haven’t heard of a single tourist encountering the Mafia. Not directly, maybe in a TV drama! Its ridiculous for anyone American to present crime or poverty in Western European countries without first pointing out that the USA is multiple times more murderous, the difference between rich and poor is far, far greater and drug gangs and so on are far more prevalent. Southern Italy has issues but as tourism goes it’s exceptionally beautiful, historic, a repository of great art and architecture and as for the food, I was recently in Puglia and the food was sensational, I know Italy well but hadn’t expected it to be so fantastic. Meanwhile, back in the USA, I just drove past several thousand people sleeping rough in tents and boxes on the streets and bridges of Los Angeles while Bentleys and Mercedes glide past. I have never seen that anywhere in Europe. Ever. And I’m over 60. And the rough sleepers are not illegal immigrants, they are Americans and probably mostly white Americans.

[davidegiovannilacamera]

My family emigrated from southern Italy to America in the 1960’s… only to come back to Southern Italy in the mid 80’s. Whilst the south is undoubtedly poorer than the north and does indeed present itself with many problems, it is definitely not as portrayed by the video (this coming from a person living in one of the poorest villages in all of the south). Whilst some areas might present themselves as rugged or run-down, no one here lives on the streets or eats out of dumpsters. On the contrary, many southern cities have lush parks and glass-painted buildings, luxury cars are common and so are well-dressed, happy families. Poorer areas do exist, and people who live in smaller villages might encounter more difficulties. In fairness, cities in the south do sometimes feel more run-down than their northern counterparts. But, one must keep in mind three major points.
-1) real consistent investment in the south started only about 40 to 50 years ago…
-2) The mafia has really taken a toll on our economy
-3) extremely bad money spending measures over the years.

Many of these issues have mutated over-time.
-1) Over the last 10 years, the south has been receiving heaps of investments (transport, hospitals, schools and many others)
-2) While the mafia presence is still definitely a huge problem, it has evolved from the rugged gang-style ways as portrayed in the video. It is much more heavily involved in more high profile crimes like in contracting or international drug dealing-also, over the last 20 years, the government has really cracked down on the so-called “war against mafia”, often achieving huge milestones in mild secrecy, not to draw too much attention.
-3) Public spending issues are a huge problem for all of Italy, not just the south, and are mostly linked to an impossible bureaucracy.

Many industries have risen over the years and are continuing to pop up. Many southern universities have reached top rankings and the agriculture and IT industries have been booming lately.

At the end of the day, even though the south has improved a lot over the decades, it still has a lot to do before it can reach up to the north’s standards. I wish the best for my home… as it has been deprived of its faculties for far too long… I hope that my generation can contribute even more to the full development of the south.

[Boretheory]

I would like to point out as a Sardinian that Cagliari ( regional capital city ) has became a pearl of the south and that in general the region has had great performance especially economically, the only issue in Sardinia is the central lands, which due to being mountainous they’re underdeveloped and basically out of the regional government control. The divide between the Coasts and the interior is absolutely astonishing

[TheRedBaron]

Its ALWAYS been this way, 2000 years ago the situation was the inverse. It was the south that was the centre of science law learning langauge and culture and the north that was the howling barbarian wilderness. It was in the south the the colonies of Magna Graecia was established it was Sicily that gave us the genius of Archimedes.

[katanensis]

I was born in Catania Sicily and grew up there until I was 29. during those years, I graduate in engineering had a very good job and I was very well paid. Never got mugged, never was scared of walking alone in town at night time or any of that! At a certain point I decided to move to the USA, because there are way more opportunities than both northern and southern Italy.
Now is it true that northern Italy is more developed that the south? YES sure it is, but life in the south is as good as any other western Europe places that you can think. this video sheds some truths but it's mostly a fable!

[seanriley]

Southern Italians are treated the same in their country as Northern English and have been for centuries but they are also fantastic, resilient, welcoming people.

[lorenzopratici]

Coming from northern Italy, and having lived most of my life here, I can say that what you highlighted is technically true, but you pictured it a bit exaggerated… people from the south often come to the north for college and then they usually stay for work. Still, I know a bunch of people with great jobs in the south. Also, bigger cities such as Naples, Catania, Bari, … have pretty good living standards. To make a comparison with the US, I’d say that Milan is your California and Sicily is your Mississippi

[lamakicker]

Ever wonder why every Italian American you know is from Sicily/Souther Italy? This is why, Italians in the north aren’t nearly as likely to leave for greener pastures in America.

[Mina-gstq]

Sardinia has no organized crime, historically. For us is more a history of continue colonization and isolation. We are still the playground for rich tourists and we are dying as we don't really get considered by the central government. But we are not that similar to the South either, culturally. Different conquerors. We are just alone. And poor, definitely. But in general the explanation was much needed! There is this romanticised idea of Italy... yeah as a tourist is great but as it is now for a lot of us is almost impossible to not have to leave at some point. We keep emigrating, it’s been well over a century and it still doesn't get better.

[pompei]

The south of Italy lives much better than most people in the US

[XGenKaneShiroX]

The same situation also occurred in France and Spain as well. Southern France is more poorer than Northern France and the southern half of Spain is significantly more poorer than the northern half of Spain. The GDP per capita in Occitania is €27, 500 while in Paris it’s €65, 000 which is a massive difference. Would be great if The Infographics Show were to make a video on 2 of those countries just like how he did for this Italy one.

[jackmag]

I was born in Messina Sicily, and growing up my parents and Grandparents would always tell me how north Italy hated us southerners and didn’t want nothing to do with us, never forget that

[laerau]

It's a similar situation here in Louisiana, except it is the southern part of the state that has all the wealth, industry, and good jobs, while the northern part is much worse off and devoid of opportunity

[xxklesx]

The short version is that southern Italy is still suffering the effects of feudalism. In northern Europe, starting from the Netherlands and Germany, a bourgeoisie has formed, a middle class that has fought for power. The rich cities of northern Italy, a legacy of the HRE, formed these structures. In industrialization, this affected regions that were not feudal. Again the South lost touch. And the mafia only makes things worse.

[theteamxxx]

The difference in GDP from richest to poorer region in italy is 55k dollars (2018 pre pandemic levels ) in Alto Adige or south tirol and 19k dollars in Calabria . So for sure there's a huge difference between north and soth as everyone knows but you don't consider that the south as probably the biggest submerged economy in europe where people work "in nero" to not pay taxes which means that the gdp per capita should be a bit higher in south italy compared to what is shown .

One can only say that if the south had the organization of the north and industrialization plus not the mafia old style control italy would have been europe powerhouse but everyone knows that every country has a more developed part that carries the nation . For example the uk south/north. For italy already during the middle ages u had super powers in the north like venice or genova and later the north got industrialized during the industrial revolution while the south relied on agriculture and this snowballed hard