SHARE Italy is the national group of researchers taking part in the project “Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe” — SHARE.
SHARE Italy is the national group of researchers taking part in the project “Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe” – SHARE, one of the main European research infrastructures dedicated to the study of ageing. Through a longitudinal survey that follows people aged 50 and over over time, SHARE collects comparable information on health, economic conditions, work, retirement, and family and social networks, making it possible to understand how living conditions change with age and what the impact of public policies is across European countries.
Launched in 2004, SHARE covers almost all European countries and is the main international reference point for research on ageing in Europe.
Since 2011 SHARE has been organised as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (SHARE-ERIC), the first ERIC established in the social sciences. This status ensures solid European governance and supports the collection, management and dissemination of harmonised scientific data for the benefit of the international research community.
The survey is multidisciplinary: it integrates economic, health, social and demographic information in a single harmonised database, making cross-country comparisons and analyses across the entire life course possible. Thanks to the panel nature of the survey, the same individuals are interviewed periodically, allowing researchers to analyse changes over time and assess the effects of reforms, economic events and individual transitions.
SHARE Italy represents Italy within the SHARE-ERIC European network and coordinates scientific activities and data collection at national level. Italy has taken part in the project since the first wave and is among the countries that have contributed to the scientific development of SHARE. The national group coordinates data collection on Italian territory, takes part in the development of the questionnaire, contributes to international working groups and promotes the use of the data by researchers, institutions and policymakers. The scientific activity of the Italian group has given rise to numerous publications on pensions, labour market, health, inequality, well-being, active ageing and social policies.
SHARE Italy is coordinated by the Country Team Leader, Prof. Guglielmo Weber, of the Department of Economics and Management “Marco Fanno” at the University of Padova, and involves a network of researchers from the Department of Economics and Management “Marco Fanno” at the University of Padova, the Department of Economics at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the CNR and other Italian institutions. This network brings together expertise in economics, statistics, demography, epidemiology, medicine and the social sciences, ensuring a truly interdisciplinary approach to the study of ageing. The composition of the research group and the profiles of its members are presented in the section “The team”.
The Joint Research Unit (JRU) SHARE.IT is the collaboration agreement between the Department of Economics and Management “Marco Fanno” at the University of Padova, the Department of Economics at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the National Research Council (CNR) for carrying out research and development activities within the European infrastructure SHARE-ERIC. Learn more in the Useful links section.
Over more than twenty years, SHARE has become one of the most widely used data archives in the world for the study of ageing. The information collected supports thousands of scientific publications and contributes to the design and evaluation of public policies in the fields of health, welfare, labour, pensions and elderly care. The data are also harmonised with other major international surveys, enabling global comparisons of ageing processes.
SHARE Italy promotes rigorous, open and interdisciplinary research. Through its collaboration with SHARE-ERIC and with numerous national and European research infrastructures, it contributes to developing knowledge that helps us understand the challenges posed by population ageing and supports evidence-based decisions.
This commitment also continues through participation in strategic initiatives dedicated to the development of research infrastructures and open science, including FOSSR (Fostering Open Science in Social Science Research) and the extended partnership Age-It — Ageing Well in an Ageing Society.
