Who really is the average Italian? What drinks coffee in the morning, look at the game in the evening and complains about taxes, or a simple number in Istat databases that summarizes the population data in Italy? If the common imagination mixes reality and caricature, the statistics take a more realistic photo: based on the most recent data, the average Italian is about 46 years old and a life expectancy at the birth of 81.4 years. It has a high school diploma, a stable job, but not necessarily well paid, and surfers often online, even if it has basic digital skills.
The origin of the idea of the middle man
Historically, the idea of an average man has never been neutral. Already in the Enlightenment, scientists and scholars tried to measure and standardize humanity. The model, however, was almost always: male, white, wealthy and western. A profile that is anything but universal.
The origin of the modern concept of the average man is due to the Astronomo and Statistico Adolphe Queletet, who in 1835 in his work “Sur l’homme et le développement de ses facultés “ described theHomme Moyen as a sort of “ideal man” defined by the average of the characteristics observable in a population. This concept deeply influenced criminology and eugenics and continues to influence us today.
For example, in Quetelet we must also the ideation of the BMI (body mass index), still used today to evaluate the physical fitness of people based on a number that represents the “ideal average” of the ratio between weight and height at the square of an individual. But it is an index that does not take into account individual differences (such as age, muscle mass and metabolism) and is therefore often criticized.
Why can the average become a trap?
In statistics, the average man does not exist as a real person, but only as a mathematical portrait. Istat, for example, tells us that in Italy the average number of children is 1.2: a useful figure to understand trends, but obviously no woman can give birth to 1.2 children.
The average is therefore a precious tool to know a population: from the average stature to income, from school votes to consumption. In fact, we also think of the “middle class”, which includes the set of workers with average income and consumption.
But there is a risk: to confuse medium with normal. And this is where the statistics become a double -edged sword. The average data on the population outline a statistical identity useful for analyzing trends and planning policies, but incomplete. And using the average profile to judge who is far away is a mistake: those who move away from the average risks being considered abnormal, out of place or less valid, while normalcy is a social and cultural construction. In fact, the average tells us nothing about individual differences.
We think of Italy: the fact that it is a country where on average few children are made to make us forget that there are also numerous families for which what adapts to a single -light family can be narrow or insufficient.
But then, does the middle Italian exist? Yes, but only in numbers and stereotypes. In real life, nobody is truly medium. And it is precisely this diversity that makes society richer. For this, talking about average Italian risks creating discriminatory stereotypes. After all, the average is a number. And none of us is a number.
