gdp per head

The European Commission’s 9th Cohesion Report (March 2024) provides an overview of some of the issues facing EU cohesion policy and dominating the current debate on its future. It mentions that lessons learned from past implementation underline the need to further improve cohesion policy design, to modernise and strengthen EU action. The report states that considerable economic disparities persist across the continent. More than 1 in 4 people in the EU (28 %) live in a region with per capita GDP below 75 % of the EU average. A centre/periphery dichotomy prevails in many economic and social indicators. Economic development in many Member States continues to be driven by the competitiveness of capital regions and major agglomerations. Several EU regions are still struggling with challenges that do not necessarily fit a single, uniform category. EU cohesion policy therefore needs to provide more, and more specific, ‘place-based’ approaches to EU regions and municipalities to address their unique problems. Map 1 shows the GDP per head (PPS) of NUTS2 EU regions. Many EU regions in darker shades of blue are below the EU average.