We present and discuss the most recent determination of the rate of
Supernovae in the local Universe. A comparison with other results shows a
general agreement on the gross values but still significant differences on the
values of the rates of various SN rates in different kinds of galaxies. The
rate of SNe, used as a probe of Star Formation, confirms the young progenitor
scenario for SNII+Ib/c. The increasing diversity of SNe reflects also in the SN
yields which may affect the chemical evolution of the Galaxy but, because of
the limited statistics, we cannot estimate the contributions of the new
subtypes yet. It is also expected that in a few years observational
determinations of the SN rates at various look-back times will be available.Comment: 9 pages, Latex, 1 figure, To appear in the proceedings of the
conference "The Chemical Evolution of The Milky Way: Stars versus Clusters",
eds. F. Matteucci and F. Giovannelli, Vulcano, Italy, September 20-24 199
