In 2016, regional GDP per capita ranged from 29% of the European Union average in the Bulgarian region of Severozapaden, to 611% of the average in Inner London-West in the United Kingdom, according to figures published by Eurostat, the European statistical office, on Wednesday 28 February.
“There is a considerable variation in the EU”, Eurostat comments in its press release. Also among the regions with the highest GDP per capita in 2016 were the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (257%), Southern & Eastern Ireland (217%), Brussels in Belgium and Hamburg in Germany (both at 200% of the EU average). More generally, Eurostat notes that of the regions with GDP per capita 50% or more above the EU average in 2016: five were in Germany, three in the United Kingdom, two in Austria, one each in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden, as well as the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
At the other end of the table, below the EU average, were to be found the Bulgarian regions of Severozapaden (29%), Severen tsentralen and Yuzhen tsentralen (both 34%), the outermost region of Mayotte (33%), and Nord-Est in Romania (36%). Among the 21 regions with GDP per capita below 50% of the EU average, five were in Bulgaria and Poland, four in Hungary, three in Romania and Greece and one in France.
These figures could provide grist to the mill of those who support the cohesion policy, which seeks to bring about territorial convergence, against the budget cuts that are being touted in the European budget after 2020 (see EUROPE 11968). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)