London the richest region in the EU

London swings it as the EU’s richest region, according to EU data released today, while Poland had five of its regions languishing at the bottom of the bloc’s wealth table.

Inner London enjoys purchasing power of over three times the EU’s average according to figures from the EU’s statistics agency, way ahead of its closest competitors, Brussels, Luxembourg, Hamburg and the Ile de France region around Paris.

Lubelskie in eastern Poland was the poorest region, with less than one-third of the EU’s average followed by its neighbours, Podlasie, Warmisko-Mazurskie, Podkarpacie and Swietokrzyskie.

Outside Poland, the lowest ranked region was Northern Hungary.

Eurostat did not give hard currency figures, but used an artificial standard loosely based on the euro but adapted to take into account differences in local price levels.

Based on 2002 figures, it gave Inner London purchasing power per inhabitant of 66,744 compared to an EU average of 21,172 and just 6,762 in Lubelskie.

However, the agency warned that data for London and other big city-based regions could be skewed by commuters who push up the figures with their earnings, even though they live outside the city.

Of 37 regions with more than 125 % of the EU average, seven were in Britain, six each in Germany and Italy and four each in Austria and the Netherlands. Out of 59 regions below 75 % of the average, 16 were in Poland, seven in the Czech Republic, and six each in Hungary and Germany.

Germany’s position in both lists shows continuing divergence between east and west, well over a decade after reunification. Hamburg’s 39,756 purchasing power was more than double that of every region from the former East Germany.

Regions in the 10 nations that joined the EU in May were generally at the bottom end of the ranking, with only the Czech capital Prague and its Slovak counterpart Bratislava exceeding the EU average.

Among the 15 older EU nations, the poorest region was western Greece, followed by another Greek region, eastern Macedonia-Thrace, and northern Portugal.