On the double transition front, new models of development and territorial governance are urgently needed.
The small-town-large-town divide is in fact replacing the north-south divide; 61% of citizens recognize digital as having an important role in promoting economic development; 1 citizen out of 2 does not know or knows little about the concept of sustainability. These are some of the data that emerge from the research of the Observatory of the Foundation for Digital Sustainability "What do Italians think of the relationship between sustainability and digital?" created in collaboration with the San Pio Institute and presented today during the Foundation's annual conference, organized during EarthDay week.
The survey highlights, for example, how as many as 34% of the inhabitants of large cities have limited or no knowledge of the concept of sustainability: one Italian in three. But this percentage rises by almost 20 percentage points, to 53%, if we consider municipalities with fewer than 3000 inhabitants. In other words, one in two Italians who live in small towns (and, let us remember, 80% of Italian municipalities have under 3000 inhabitants) does not know what sustainability is. The research also reveals a great difficulty on the part of Italian citizens in looking at digital as a tool at the service of sustainability, be it environmental, economic or social. And even in this case the difficulty is inversely proportional to the size of the area of residence.
However, the survey also highlights how Italians are increasingly using the digital systems made available by the public administration to access public services, even if there is still much to be done. We are talking about SPID, used by 54% of residents of large towns and 34.0% of residents of small towns; CIE/CNS (Electronic Identity Card / National Service Card), used by 34% of residents of large towns and 28% of residents of small towns; PagoPA, used by 28% of residents of large centers and 23% of residents of small centers. The levels of adoption are different depending on whether you live in large or small centres, while they are homogeneous for all geographical areas except for the North East, where lower levels of diffusion of IT tools are found.