Which Is the Richest Region in the EU?

Key Takeaways

• Eastern and Midland in Ireland have the highest GDP per capita among the EU’s 244 regions. Multinational companies based in the region are among the reasons why they ranked high.
• Capital-city regions have the highest GDP per capita in 19 of the 22 EU countries divided into regions. Banks, media companies and company headquarters in capital-city regions help explain why each worker there produces more value on average.
• GDP per capita counts all the value produced in a region, even when the money ends up with people elsewhere. In Ireland’s two leading regions, multinational profits sent abroad push GDP per capita up, but households earned less than 40 cents for every euro of GDP in 2023.

Richest EU Regions by GDP per Capita

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Household Primary Income Falls Below GDP in the EU’s Richest Regions

GDP per capita measures the value of goods and services a region produces per person living there. Regional GDP per capita figures adjust for price differences between countries and set the EU average at 100%.

Which European Countries Have the Highest GDP? ->

Unlike GDP, household primary income counts only what the people living in a region earn from work, property, and investments, before taxes and social benefits.

Three EU regions recorded GDP per capita above 200% of the EU average in 2024:

• Eastern and Midland (Ireland): 268%
• Luxembourg: 245%
• Southern (Ireland): 217%

Eastern and Midland is the Irish region around Dublin. The Southern region covers the south of the country, including Cork.

Major multinational companies based in the Eastern and Midland region and the Southern region send much of their profit to owners abroad. As a result, that profit counts in Ireland’s GDP but not in the household primary income of people living in Ireland.

Many people who work in Luxembourg live in other countries and cross the border to work. As a result, their work adds to Luxembourg’s GDP without adding to Luxembourg’s population. Their wages count as household primary income in the countries where they live.

In 2023, households in the three EU regions with the highest GDP per capita earned less than 40 cents for every euro of GDP their region produced. Only five of the EU’s 244 regions recorded a figure that low:

• Southern (Ireland): 31 cents
• Eastern and Midland (Ireland): 33 cents
• Luxembourg: 39 cents

Capital-City Regions Rank as the Richest Region in 19 of 22 EU Countries

Capital-city regions have the highest GDP per capita in 19 of the 22 EU countries with regional divisions.

Banks, media companies and the headquarters of large companies tend to cluster in capital-city regions. These businesses help explain why each worker in a capital-city region produces more value on average than workers elsewhere in the country.

Germany, Italy and Austria are the only three EU countries where the capital-city region does not have the highest GDP per capita. 

The region with the highest GDP per capita in each of these three EU countries is:

• Germany: Hamburg
• Italy: Bolzano/Bozen
• Austria: Salzburg

The German engineering company Siemens moved its headquarters from Berlin to Munich and Erlangen in 1949. Many companies left West Berlin in the post-war years because of the city’s isolated location and uncertainty about its future.

More large companies moved their headquarters out of West Berlin after the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. The Wall cut West Berlin off from its surrounding region and from about 63,000 workers who had commuted in from the East.

The EU regions with the highest GDP per capita are the places where companies, jobs and commuters concentrate. For anyone comparing where to live or work in the EU, household primary income per inhabitant is the better guide to what residents earn.