GDP per capita in PPS, by NUTS 2 regions, 2008

The latest Eurostat report (2011) on regions’
evolution reveals that regional disparities are
still very strong (see Figure 1). The regions
with the highest per capita GDP are in
southern Germany, south-eastern UK,
northern Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Austria, Ireland and the Nordic
countries. The weaker regions are
concentrated in the southern, south-western
and south-eastern parts of the Union, mainly
in the 12 MS that joined the EU in 2004 and
2007 (EU-12). More than three-quarters of
the regions with GDP of less than 75% of the
EU average are situated in the EU-12. The
eight poorest regions in the EU are all in
Bulgaria and Romania.