The study intends to investigate empirically the evolution of some typical characteristics of industrial districts such as specialization and vertical disintegration in the presence of clusters. In the paper we utilized descriptive statistical analysis to show the evolution of the district’s characteristics and its adapt to the changing scenarios of global competition. The analysis is performed by applying a multiple regression that tries to measure the intensity of this relation. The reference population is represented by the 156 districts identified by Istat between the local systems of work. The analysis compares the districts from 1981 to 2001. The paper have different useful elements that help to understand the change processes in the Italian district system.