Brussels, 24/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - In 2001 real agricultural income per worker rose by 3.3% throughout the European Union and by 3% in the Euro-zone, according to Eurostat's most recent estimates, published on Tuesday. The increase in the level of EU15 real agricultural income per worker was due to an increase in real agricultural income (+1.2%), on the one hand, and to the continued reduction in the volume of agricultural labour input (-2.0%), on the other. Agricultural income was above the levels of 2000 in all Member States except Luxembourg (-0.6%). The strongest growth rates were observed in Denmark (+12.3%), Portugal (+11.8%), Austria (+10.9%), Germany (+9.9%), Ireland (+7.8%) and Belgium (+5.3%). Growth in the other countries of the Union are as follows: United Kingdom +3.5, Finland + 4.7, Sweden +5.0, Spain +2.6, Netherlands +2.4, Greece +1.5%, France +0.7% and Italy 0.2%. Information available from the 8 Candidate Countries who were able to participate for the first time in this exercise reveals a range of annual change in real agricultural income per worker, from a fall of 14.4% in Slovenia to an increase of 26.8% in Hungary. There were also income increases in the Czech Republic (+20.5%), Estonia (+17.2%), the Slovak Republic (+14.1%) and Lithuania (13.6%). Real agricultural income per worker declined a little in Malta (-1.6%) and strongly in Poland (-10.3%).