Regions in Romania and neighbor Bulgaria are among the poorest in the EU based on GDP per capita, according to Eurostat, which used data from 2009. The poorest region in the EU is the Bulgarian region Severozapaden, with a GDP per capita of  about a quarter the average in the EU. The Bulgarian region of Severen tsentralen and the North – East of Romania have a GDP per inhabitant of 29 percent of the EU average. The EU average was of EUR 23,500 per capita in 2009. Romania had a GDP per inhabitant of 11,000 in 2009, with some regions scoring as low as EUR 6,900 (North – East region). The richest area of Romania was capital Bucharest – Ilfov, with EUR 26,100 in GDP per capita.

The poorest regions in the ranking were all in Romania and Bulgaria. Among the 65 regions with GDP less than 75 percent of the average level, 15 were in Poland, 7 each in the Czech Republic and Romania, 6 in Hungary, 5 in Bulgaria, 4 each in Greece, France (all overseas departments) and Italy, 3 each in Portugal and Slovakia, 2 in the United Kingdom, 1 each in Spain and Slovenia, as well as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

At the other end of the scale came the Inner London, with a whopping GDP per capita four-fold the EU average- or some EUR 78,000 per inhabitant, while Luxembourg's GDP per capital was three times the EU average, according to Eurostat data.

The full report from Eurostat here.

editor@romania-insider.com