The rankings, which are based on regional GDP per capita expressed in purchasing power standards (PPS), demonstrate a wide disparity across the EU.
Southern Ireland’s regions, including Wexford, Waterford, and Cork, boasted an impressive 286% of the EU average, compared to 30% of the EU average in Mayotte, a French overseas region.
Nonetheless, Luxembourg still ranks very high.
After the southern regions of the Republic of Ireland, the best performing regions were Luxembourg (257% of the EU average), Eastern and Central Ireland (247%), Prague in the Czech Republic (207%) and the Belgian capital region of Brussels (196%).
The high GDP per capita in these regions (Luxembourg, Brussels, and Prague) is partly explained by a large influx of commuting workers and by a few large multinational companies operating in the regions, similarly to Ireland.
In contrast, after Mayotte (30%), the worst-ranked regions for regional GDP per capita in 2022 were Severozapaden in Bulgaria and Guyana in France (both at 40% of the EU average), followed by Voreio Aigaio in Greece (41%) and Severen Tsentralen in Bulgaria (42%).
