Thursday

28th Mar 2024

City of London richest EU region

  • London host the EU's biggest financial sector (Photo: Neil Howard)

With wealth three times greater than the EU average, inner London - home to the EU's largest financial sector- is the bloc's richest region.

Luxembourg, another financial powerhouse, is second at 266 percent of the EU average GDP, followed by Brussels which also has over twice the average, according to statistics on gross domestic product per capita in the EU's 272 regions in 2011.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The rich northern German city of Hamburg is at 202 percent of the GDP average, followed by Bratislava. The Slovak capital is the richest among former Communist regions and ahead of Paris, Stockholm and Prague.

Eurostat, which released the figures Thursday (27 February) notes that in some regions "GDP per capita figures can be significantly influenced by commuter flows," as people may live outside the city where they work.

At the other end of the scale, Bulgaria and Romania remain home to the EU's eight poorest regions, as was the case in previous years.

With only 29 percent of the EU GDP average, both the north-eastern region of Romania bordering Moldova as well as the north-western Bulgarian region of Severozapaden, bordering Serbia, are the poorest regions of all.

Among the 75 regions below 75 percent of EU GDP average, fifteen were in Poland, nine in Greece, seven in both the Czech Republic and Romania, six in Hungary, five each in Bulgaria and Italy, four each in Portugal and the United Kingdom, three in Slovakia, two each in Spain, France (both overseas departments) and Croatia, one in Slovenia, as well as in the single region member states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Magazine

Prague outranks Paris and Stockholm among EU's richest regions

Prague outranked Paris, Stockholm and Vienna in a list of the EU's richest regions published on Thursday by Eurostat, the bloc's statistics office. The chart is however based on 2007 data, at the height of an economic boom in the central European state.

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us