On May 20, Brussels published the statistic (produced by Eurostat) of GDP per capita by purchasing power parity (discounting the effect of prices and the exchange rate ) and the results obtained by the Spanish communities are very alarming. Thirteen of the 17 regions that make up the State and the two autonomous cities have a gross domestic product (GDP) per inhabitant below the European average.
At the state level, at the bottom of this classification (carried out by Eurostat with data from 2013) is Extremadura. With GDP per capita equivalent to 68% of the average for the whole of the EU, Extremadura is among the poorest 25% of the twenty-eight countries that make up the European Union (EU28). In this same group are also Andalusia, with a GDP per inhabitant of 70% of the community average, and Melilla (70%).
On the opposite side is Madrid, the most prosperous community in Spain, according to the index calculated by Eurostat, with a GDP of 128% of the community average. They are closely followed by Euskadi (122%) and Navarra (116%).
One of the most obvious conclusions is that the northeast of the peninsula accumulates most of the wealth. This geographical area includes Euskadi, Navarra, La Rioja and Aragón. These last two communities also register a GDP per inhabitant higher than the community average.
Leaving aside the particular analysis of Spain and focusing on the global results collected in this study: the leading regions in GDP per capita (based on 2013 data) after Inner London in Great Britain (with 325% of the average) are the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (258%), Brussels in Belgium (207%), Hamburg in Germany (195%), Groningen in the Netherlands (187%), Bratislava in Slovakia (184%), Stockholm in Sweden (179% ), The Ile-de-France (popularly known as the Région Parisienne) in France (175%) and Prague in the Czech Republic (173%). The regions with the worst results, following the French Mayotte (27%), are located mostly in Romania and Bulgaria: Severozapaden (30%), Severen tsentralen (31%) and Yuzhen tsentralen (32%) in Bulgaria, and Nord -Is in Romania (34%). However, it should be noted that in some regions GDP per capita figures can be significantly influenced by people coming from the suburbs or nearby suburbs. These inflows of people have increased regional production to levels that would be impossible for the active population residing in those cities to reach.
To see the study data in more detail and expressed on a map, click here.
