Welcome to Sardegna: The State of Things, a podcast that takes an insightful look into the complex dynamics shaping life on the island of Sardinia. Drawing directly from the demoscopic analysis featured in the report "La Sardegna: lo stato delle cose fra ‘percepito’ e ossatura reale,’" this series dissects the articulated picture that interweaves collective perceptions with the island’s socio-economic realities in the 2024-2025 period.

Explore the fault lines that define modern Sardinia:

We delve into the areas where perception and reality diverge most sharply, offering a necessary exercise to understand the transformations in corso and the challenges that must be addressed.

• The Healthcare Crisis (The Exposed Nerve): We focus on the state of the public health system, which the analysis identifies as the island's most critical issue, risking a point of "non-return". Learn why seven out of ten citizens expressed a negative judgment on the service in 2024, a figure roughly thirty percentage points higher than the Italian national average. Despite a strong foundational trust in the universalistic principle of the right to health and the value of public service, we examine the primary drivers of dissatisfaction: long waiting times, chronic shortages of medical and nursing staff, and the increasing necessity for forced medical migration to the mainland. The 2025 data, however, shows the first signs of recovery of confidence, encouraging continued reforms.
• Economy and Development: While the collective imagination holds traditional confidence in tourism (78% consensus) and agriculture and fishing (indicated by over 60%) as strategic levers, we reveal that these sectors, while offering growth margins, have a limited actual weight on the GDP and cannot sustain development alone. The future hinges on diversification, with growing recognition of the importance of industry, services, culture, digital, and research as capable generators of opportunities.
• Identity and the Flight of Youth: Discover the peculiar strength of Sardinian identity: four out of ten Sardinians define themselves first as such, a proportion double the national average, which is linked to a sense of social cohesion superior to the rest of Italy. However, this strong identity is undercut by a major criticality: only one in three young people believes the island can offer an adequate future, creating the risk of "social resentment" and the "flight of vital energies".
• Political Credibility: We track the encouraging element of growing citizen trust in regional institutions, which increased from 19% in 2024 to a more substantial 30% in 2025. We discuss how this increase is considered a "credit" granted by the citizens, demanding responsible cultivation and concrete action to meet the real needs of the Sardinian community.

Tune in to uncover the socio-political complexities and vital challenges laid bare in the most recent analysis of Sardinia's public opinion.