magazine_ Interview
From 1972 ‘til now
The Autonomy Dashboard South Tyrol reflects the Autonomous Province in the mirror of statistics
The increases in population diversity and decrease in the power of the South Tyrolean People's Party are just some of the recent decade’s changes that have not escaped anyone’s notice. But what do developments in terms of demographics and language groups, politics, administration and the economy actually look like in detail? With lots of data from various sources, a new platform has been created to show trends and enable comparisons. Useful for research, monitoring and fact-checking – or simply to understand your own picture. Jakob Volgger headed the development.
How did the idea of the dashboard come about?
Volgger: Autonomy is often perceived as something dry, even bland - and that’s true in that it has a lot to do with law and administrative processes, but it also has a very direct social and economic impact, and we wanted to make this visible with figures. That’s how we came up with the idea of the dashboard. We then had valuable support from the communications department during the development. The dashboard is also available in English, because the foreign delegations that visit us are always interested in figures and many statistics on South Tyrol were previously only available in Italian and German and because of this, the dashboard is available as a tool for researchers all over the world. It is not aimed at a specific target group, with its very accessible infographics, it is intended for anyone who is interested.
Where does the data come from?
Volgger: All the data already existed, we didn’t collect any new data, we just sometimes re-evaluated it. Most of the data comes from the South Tyrolean Provincial Statistics Institute ASTAT and the Italian National Institute of Statistics Istat, but we have also used many other sources, such as reports from the Court of Audit. We have tried to create as complete a data series as possible, especially from 1972 onwards, when the Second Autonomy Statute came into force. At times, this wasn’t always possible because the definition of indicators has occasionally changed so that some figures are no longer comparable. We plan to update the data at least once a year to keep track of trends. If interesting new data becomes available, we will include it. Perhaps the dashboard will also become an incentive to collect certain data of interest on autonomy in order to track developments. In this sense, it is also a monitoring tool.
In what ways has South Tyrol changed the most in recent decades?
Volgger: One very important aspect is the demographic changes; the data presented in the dashboard shows that many people with Italian citizenship are moving away from South Tyrol, around 80 percent of South Tyroleans registered in the AIRE which is the register of Italian citizens resident abroad, live in Germany, Austria and Switzerland: German-speaking countries. Anyone can interpret for themselves what this means for a minority region.At the same time, we can see that South Tyrol is only showing positive population growth thanks to the immigration both from Italy and other countries. Demographically, South Tyrol is changing markedly.
One indicator that I personally only noticed during my research for the dashboard was that of “Residental population by region of birth”: of the people living in South Tyrol today, only 77% were born here; many have come to South Tyrol in recent decades. The political landscape has also changed significantly – from the strength of the SVP, the South Tyrolean People’s Party, in 1948, which had 67.6 percent of the vote back then, and which today has 34.5 percent; political diversity has also increased. This is not a new discovery, but the visualization makes it particularly clear. A picture is worth a thousand words, they say – and I think that also applies to data visualizations.
Internal migration of Italian citizens and nationals
The term internal migration generally refers to migration within a certain country. In the South Tyrolean context, internal migration refers to people who move their residence from another region of Italy to South Tyrol. Internal out-migration describes the reverse phenomenon: people move their place of residence from South Tyrol to another region in Italy. Net migration is the difference between internal immigration and internal emigration.
What changes are having a particular impact on autonomy and the protection of minorities?
Volgger: Generally speaking, we have what is known as territorial autonomy in South Tyrol, which means it applies to all people who live in the province; and when society changes, it naturally has an impact on how autonomy is shaped and lived. Greater diversity due to immigration is therefore a development of particular significance, and I think it is important to understand exactly what is happening because social diversity is also accompanied by a new linguistic diversity. And this raises various questions for South Tyrol, because we think in terms of three language groups: German, Italian and Ladin. And this division into the three language groups has a wide range of effects, precisely on the language group census and the associated ethnic quota system which has always been relevant in the equal distribution of public resources and jobs according to language groups. So far, however, there have been no major changes; the language groups have remained more or less the same. We are currently waiting for the results of the latest census. It has to be said, however, that for various reasons, the language group census is not suitable for reflecting the actual linguistic diversity of South Tyrol.
How the new diversity will play out in the future is certainly an exciting question, especially in connection with the ethnic quota system, which is a recurring topic of discussion
What does the data say about the ethnic quota system?
Volgger: If you look at the past decades, you can see that ethnic quota system has been observed in local administrations, such as the provincial administration and the municipalities – even if the Ladin minority is always slightly underrepresented there because it never quite reaches the 4.5 percent share of positions that it would be entitled to. In the public state institutions, there are deviations from the ethnic quota system requirements, but because the number of state employees in South Tyrol has continued to fall, they are less significant. Of course, this does not release the state institutions from the obligation to comply with ethnic quota system where provided for.
We also have a small deviation in the health care sector; the figures for 2022 show that 66% of the staff in the health care sector belong to the German language group, whereas according to the language group census it should be 69%. This is an example of the now more flexible application of the ethnic quota system.
Local government
Jobs in South Tyrol’s local public administrations must be filled according to the size of the language groups as determined by the language group census. The local administrations include the provincial administration, the municipalities, the medical services, teachers in state schools (primary, secondary and high schools) and other local authorities.
Do you think that some of the developments described above are not given enough attention in the public debate?
Volgger:I wouldn’t say that, and it’s not my job to evaluate them. Our aim with the dashboard was to provide neutral presentation; in other words, we describe the indicators technically and contextualize them, but we have deliberately not made any interpretations because everyone can and should form their own opinion. The dashboard itself provides the data. The ethnic quota system for example is repeatedly brought up by various parties, sometimes without any data to back it up. The dashboard can and should also be used for fact-checking: you can look it up quickly and easily and see what the trends and the figures at the moment are.
Are there any developments that have particularly surprised you?
Volgger: Yes, the proportion of primary school pupils in the three school systems: in 1992, 79.2 percent of children attended a German elementary school. For comparison: in the 1991 language group census, the proportion of the German language group was 68 percent. In that year, 16.6 percent of children were enrolled in Italian elementary schools, the proportion of the language group was 27.7 percent; this changed in the following years, the proportion in Italian elementary school increased. If you then look at the figures up to 2022, you can see a small increase in German elementary school again from 2017. I find that an interesting point.
Percentage of pupils in the three school systems
The education statistics provide information on how pupils are divided between the three school systems in South Tyrol: German, Italian and Ladin. The figures for primary and secondary school are the easiest to compare.
Are there also aspects that give you pause for thought?
Volgger: My feeling when working on the dashboard was and is curiosity: I’m curious to see what trends will emerge, what the next figures will show. I have also become curious about unanswered questions; for example, I am now very interested in finding out what languages South Tyrol actually does speak? Based on the data available to us, it is not possible to give a clear answer to this question. That’s why I want to investigate it in a research project and take a closer look at linguistic diversity. As soon as there are results, they will of course also be available on the dashboard.
technical documentationAutonomy Dashboard South Tyrol
Autonomy Dashboard South Tyrol provides an overview of relevant statistics on South Tyrol, its autonomy, and the protection of minorities. It brings together data from various statistical institutes, research organizations, and public institutions in a single platform. The dashboard makes it possible to recognize trends and/or make comparisons to gain personal insight into the collected data.
Jakob Volgger
Jakob Volgger is a junior researcher at the Center for Autonomy Experience at Eurac Research where (and occasionally in his spare time too) he works on issues related to autonomy and minority protection in South Tyrol. He studied political science, social work, social policy and social management.
