Free Time and Culture: Statistical Analyses to Describe Territorial Differences in Italy

The importance attributed by modern societies to work-life balance underlines the role that free time and socio-cultural interactions can play in the quality of life. There are several EU policies that influence leisure and culture: Culture Programme, Creative Europe, Erasmus +. Since ancient times, Aristotle defined free time as the foundation of culture, the individual's tension towards freedom from daily worries and work and therefore as a condition of the soul which seeks truth and true happiness through contemplation. In this context, this study aims to analyse the Italian regional differences through a principal components analysis and the construction of a composite index (using the Fair and Sustainable Wellness Methodology) starting from multidimensional variables that potentially influence leisure and culture in territories and which are included in the domains of the Istat Report on Fair and Sustainable Wellbeing. For this purpose, this contribution develops with the following structure: description of the theoretical reference framework and the indicators used to regard “health”, “education and training”, “Work and life balance”, “Economic well-being”, “Social relations”, “Safety”, “Subjective well-being”, “Landscape and cultural heritage”, “Environment”, “Innovation, research and creativity” and “Quality of services”;description of the methodology of the analysis of the principal components and for the construction of the composite indicator;description of the results, also through a geo-referenced map of Italian regions more inclined to free time and culture;conclusions description of the theoretical reference framework and the indicators used to regard “health”, “education and training”, “Work and life balance”, “Economic well-being”, “Social relations”, “Safety”, “Subjective well-being”, “Landscape and cultural heritage”, “Environment”, “Innovation, research and creativity” and “Quality of services”; description of the methodology of the analysis of the principal components and for the construction of the composite indicator; description of the results, also through a geo-referenced map of Italian regions more inclined to free time and culture; conclusions