Mortality 1981-85 in the Turin Longitudinal Study population, 25-74 years old, was analyzed according to selected geographic areas of birth and socioeconomic status. People born in the Southern Regions and in the Isles, when compared with people ever resident in Turin, have low mortality from malignancies and accidents and in general from all causes of death but respiratory diseases. People born in the North-Eastern Regions have high mortality, mainly due to malignancies, and respiratory and digestive diseases. Such differences are stronger among men in low socio-economic status and tend to weaken with time from migration.