Growth of GDP per head in real terms, 2008-2011

This dataset shows the evolution of the regional GDP in the European Union between 2008 and 2011. Until the crisis in 2008, disparities between regional economies in the EU were shrinking. In 2000, average GDP per head in the most developed 20% of regions was about 3.5 higher than that in the least developed 20%. By 2008, the difference had narrowed to 2.8 times. This was mainly due to the regions with the lowest GDP per head growing faster than average and catching up with the more prosperous ones (a process known as Beta convergence). However, the crisis seems to have brought this tendency to an end and between 2008 and 2011, regional disparities widened (the coefficient of variation increased slightly). Annual average % change\nEU-28 = -0.6\n\n; Source: Eurostat, DG REGIO