Data extracted in May 2025.
Planned article update: May 2029.
Highlights
The EU regions with the highest primary income per inhabitant in 2022 were all in Germany: Oberbayern, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Darmstadt.
The EU regions with the lowest primary income per inhabitant in 2022 were Mayotte (France), Severozapaden (Bulgaria), Nord-Est (Romania), Yugoiztochen, Yuzhen tsentralen and Severen tsentralen (all Bulgaria).
The EU regions that recorded the largest increases between 2010 and 2022 in the ratio of their net primary income per inhabitant to the EU average were Bucureşti-Ilfov (Romania), Sostinės regionas (Lithuania), Yugozapaden (Bulgaria) and Nord-Vest (Romania).
The EU regions that recorded the largest decreases between 2010 and 2022 in the ratio of their net primary income per inhabitant to the EU average were Valle d’Aosta/Vallée d’Aoste (Italy), Åland (Finland), Voreio Aigaio (Greece), Provincia Autonoma di Trento and Lazio (both Italy).
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This article is focused on regional household accounts in the EU for NUTS level 2 regions. The data presented cover the household sector. The selected indicators focus on primary and disposable income as measures of living standards. Taken together these indicators provide more detailed information about societies and living conditions than, for example, looking only at gross domestic product (GDP). Based on the 2024 version of NUTS, there are 244 level 2 regions that cover the EU countries: note that Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg and Malta each have only 1 region at NUTS level 2. The analyses are based mainly on 2022 data, but include a measure of dispersion across all EU regions from 2000 to 2022 (Figure 2) and comparison between 2010 and 2022 for individual regions (Figure 3).
Primary income is presented in relation to GDP and disposable income. It’s also analysed in terms of its components (net operating surplus and mixed income, compensation of employees received by households, and net property income).
Primary income per inhabitant in PPS
Map 1 shows household net primary income per inhabitant across EU regions, expressed as a percentage of the EU average. These data have been compiled based on data in purchasing power standards (PPS), in order to take account of price level differences between countries (see Box 1 for more information).
There were 15 regions where net primary income per inhabitant in PPS in 2022 was more than 140% of the EU average of 22 700 PPS. The 4 regions with the highest primary income per inhabitant in 2022 were all in Germany: Oberbayern (185.5% of the EU average), Hamburg (155.9%), Stuttgart (152.4%) and Darmstadt (150.2%). Among the remaining 11 regions, a further 5 were also in Germany, while the others included Luxembourg, Ile-de-France (France), Prov. Vlaams Brabant (Belgium), Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano/Bozen (Italy), Noord-Holland and Utrecht (both the Netehrlands).
By contrast, there were 12 regions with net primary income less than half the EU average. The 6 regions with the lowest primary income per inhabitant in 2022 were Mayotte in France (32.6%), Severozapaden in Bulgaria (33.9%), Nord-Est in Romania (37.0%) and 3 more Bulgarian regions – Yugoiztochen (38.3%), Yuzhen tsentralen (38.8%) and Severen tsentralen (39.2%). The remaining 6 regions were located in Romania (3 regions), Bulgaria, Hungary and France (1 region each).
Box 1: use of purchasing power parities (PPPs) in household accounts
Purchasing power parities (PPPs) are used to remove price level differences across countries in order to facilitate inter-spatial comparisons. A PPP for GDP is commonly used in national accounts to adjust variables. The use of a single PPP has the benefit of maintaining the additivity of the variables in the system of national accounts. Indicators that have been adjusted using PPPs are expressed in purchasing power standards (PPS), rather than euro. When using a single PPP, GDP expressed in PPS is still equal to the sum of its expenditure components, as is the case for national accounts data in current or previous year’s prices.
However, for specific analyses for parts of the national accounts system it’s preferable to use PPPs that better reflect the coverage of the item being analysed. As households spend most of their income on the final consumption of goods and services, a PPP for that indicator provides a better adjustment for spatial differences in prices.
In many cases, the difference between using the PPP for GDP compared with the PPP for household final consumption will be small, but in a few cases the differences are quite substantial. In 2022, the PPP for GDP was substantially lower than the PPP for household final consumption for Luxembourg (130.7 compared with 153.7), Ireland (117.1 compared with 139.1) and Denmark (133.5 compared with 146.5), while the opposite was observed in Bulgaria (59.3 compared with 53.4), Poland (62.2 compared with 58.2) and Romania (55.9 compared with 52.3).
The relationship between primary income and GDP
The ratio of net primary household income to GDP is sometimes noticeably different between regions within a country. This ratio is generally lower in regions that concentrate economic activity, like capital regions, and higher in regions in which many commuters (people who work and live in 2 different regions) live. While GDP is recorded where it’s generated (the place of work), income is recorded in the place of residence of the employed person. Furthermore, the kind of economic activity that takes place in a region affects the relationship between net primary income and GDP. In regions specialised in capital-intensive (tangible or intangible) activities, the remuneration of workers will generally constitute a lower share of the value added than in regions specialised in more labour-intensive activities. As such, income per inhabitant is a better indicator of the income of residents for a region than GDP per inhabitant.
The ratio of primary income to GDP, both measured in euros, ranged in 2022 from a low of 26.6% in Southern (Ireland) to a high of 94.2% in Prov. Luxembourg (Belgium).
There were 5 regions for which this ratio was less than 40%. Alongside Southern, these regions were Eastern and Midland (31.2%) also in Ireland, Praha (36.1%) in Czechia, the Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest (36.1%) in Belgium and Luxembourg (38.6%).
At the other end of the scale, apart from Prov. Luxembourg, there were 4 other regions in which the ratio was above 90.0%: Trier (94.0%) and Lüneburg (93.0%) in Germany, Península de Setúbal (92.7%) in Portugal and Ionia Nisia (92.1%) in Greece.
The commuting effect can be clearly seen in Belgium between Namur (88.4%) and the capital city region (36.1%), in Germany between Lüneburg (93.0%) and Schleswig-Holstein (82.1%) on one hand and Hamburg (47.4%) and Bremen (52.4%) on the other, in France between Picardie (78.3%) and Ile-de-France (58.3%), in Austria between Niederösterreich (77.1%) and Wien (51.1%), and even between regions in different EU countries as in the case of Prov. Luxembourg (94.2%), Trier (94.0%) and Lorraine (85.4%) (in Belgium, Germany and France respectively) and Luxembourg (38.6%). Map 2 offers a general overview for all EU regions.
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Source: Eurostat (nama_10r_2hhinc) and (nama_10r_2gdp)
Components of primary income
In this section, the components of household primary income are analysed. The components of primary income are the compensation of employees (national accounts code D.1), net operating surplus and mixed income (B.2n and B.3n) and net property income (national accounts code D.4).
Compensation of employees is defined as the total remuneration, in cash or in kind, including employer’s social contribution, payable by an employer to an employee in return for work done.
Net operating surplus includes the activities of unincorporated enterprises (which aren’t included in other institutional sectors), housing services to others or own accommodation services (normally called owner-occupied dwelling services) and own-account production of goods by households.
Net mixed income includes the joint remuneration of capital and labour in unincorporated enterprises. For example, for an independent taxi driver who owns a license it’s difficult to estimate from their earnings which part comes from the time spent driving the taxi and which part from owning the license. As the concept is net, the consumption of fixed capital should be deducted from the gross flows.
Property income includes, among other elements, interest received by households from their financial investments (less interest paid on loans), dividends, withdrawals from income of “quasi-corporations”, investment income from insurance or pension entitlements, and rents on land.
The share of each of these components in primary income depends on several factors. In a region in which there are few self-employed people, compensation of employees will represent a high share of primary income, whereas its share will be low if the proportion of self-employed people is high. For employees, remuneration for labour is recorded as compensation of employees while for the self-employed it’s included in mixed income. A region in which households reside mainly in dwellings that they own will (generally) have a higher share of net operating surplus and mixed income because it includes owner occupied imputed rents (an amount comparable with the rent paid to live in a similar dwelling); a region in which households mainly rent the dwellings in which they live will (generally) have a lower share of net operating surplus and mixed income. Net property income will depend on the size of the net assets that households own and on the return on those assets. Households in regions with higher income may (depending on whether they also have higher costs) accumulate net financial assets more easily. Households in regions of countries with less generous public pension systems may accumulate more assets to increase their future pensions compared with those in countries with more generous public pension systems.
In 2022, the share of the compensation of employees was highest (more than 80% of net primary income) in all Danish and Swedish regions as well as in Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovenia. The share of net operating surplus and mixed income in net primary income was highest (above 35%) in all Greek regions and several Polish regions. Finally, net property income was relatively substantial (above 15%) in most German regions, several Italian regions as well as 1 region each from Lithuania, Hungary and Sweden.
The shares of each component in net primary income varied among regions within each EU country, with this diversity notably greater in some EU countries than in others.
- Budapest (21.9%) recorded a notably higher share for net property income than in other Hungarian regions (3.6% to 6.3%)
- Yugozapaden (83.5%) recorded a notably higher share for compensation of employees compared with other Bulgarian regions (71.4% to 74.8%)
- Algarve (30.6%) recorded a notably higher share for net operating surplus and mixed income compared with other Portuguese regions (12.9% to 23.1%)
- Eastern and Midland (80.0%) recorded a notably higher share for compensation of employees compared with other Irish regions (71.9% and 72.5%)
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Source: Eurostat (nama_10r_2hhinc)
Change between 2010 and 2022 in primary household income relative to the EU average
The main observation from the 1st section of this article was that there are substantial differences in net primary income per inhabitant between EU regions [1]. An analysis of the changes in this indicator over time gives information on convergence or divergence among regions. Computing the unweighted standard deviation of net primary income per inhabitant in PPS as a percentage of the EU average reveals that there was convergence in this measure of dispersion between 2000 and 2022, interrupted twice: a pair of years of divergence in 2011 and 2012 and a single year of divergence in 2020.
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Source: Eurostat (nama_10r_2hhinc)
However, this overall development masks some important changes that have taken place in individual regions. Figure 3 plots net primary income per inhabitant in PPS as a percentage of the EU average for NUTS level 2 regions in 2010 and 2022. The x-axis (horizontal) shows the ratio in 2010 and the y-axis (vertical) the ratio in 2022. Regions that appear above/left of the diagonal in the figure are regions for which an increase in their ratio compared with the EU was observed between 2010 and 2022, while those that appear below/right of the diagonal in the figure are those for which a decrease was observed.
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Source: Eurostat (nama_10r_2hhinc)
In general, the ratio of the income per inhabitant of regions of countries which joined the EU in 2004 or more recently moved towards the EU average between 2010 and 2022. The only exception was the Czech capital region (Praha), which already had a ratio just above the EU average in 2010 and was marginally further ahead by 2022.
- All the regions with the lowest ratios in 2010 (below 60% of the EU average) are above/left of the diagonal, meaning that their income per inhabitant increased between 2010 and 2022 relative to the EU average and therefore moved towards (converged on) that average. Countries with at least some regions having a ratio below 60% in 2010 included Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia; these are shown in the figure as a red circle.
- The remaining countries which joined the EU in 2004 or more recently didn’t have any regions with a ratio below 60% of the EU average in 2010: Czechia, Cyprus, Malta and Slovenia; their regions are shown in the figure as a hollow gold square. All regions of these countries had ratios between 60% and 100% of the EU average in 2010 (except for Praha, where the ratio was already above 100%) and all recorded increases relative to the EU average between 2010 and 2022.
Like the countries which joined the EU in 2004 or more recently, Ireland also recorded an increase in income per inhabitant relative to the EU average between 2010 and 2022 for all regions: for 2 regions, the ratio remained below the EU average but moved closer to it while the 3rd region was already above the EU average in 2010 and moved further ahead. Irish regions are shown in the figure as a hollow red triangle.
For Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, an overall pattern isn’t so visible; their regions are shown in the figure as a cobalt blue diamond.
- the few regions which had a ratio below 100% of the EU average in 2010 recorded an increase, with most moving above 100% of the EU average by 2022
- among the regions with a ratio above 100% of the EU average in 2010, some recorded increases in this ratio relative to the EU average and others decreases, but none fell below 100% of the EU average by 2022
The ratio for nearly all regions among the remaining southern EU countries – Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal (note that data are incomplete for Portugal because of boundary changes) – fell between 2010 and 2022; these are shown in the figure as hollow brown diamonds.
- around two thirds of these regions had ratios below 100% of the EU average in 2010 and had moved further below by 2022
- most of the remaining regions in these countries had ratios above the EU average in 2010 and either moved closer to the EU average (15 regions) or fell below it (Attiki in Greece, Aragón in Spain, Marche and Umbria (in Italy)
- the exceptions were 2 Portuguese regions (Norte and Algarve), as they had ratios below the EU average in both periods but their ratios relative to the EU average increased slightly
All regions of Belgium, Luxembourg, France and the Nordic EU countries (Denmark, Finland and Sweden) recorded a lower net primary income per inhabitant in PPS relative to the EU average in 2022 than they had done in 2010 (regardless of whether or not their ratio was above or below 100% in 2010) and are positioned below/right of the diagonal in Figure 3; these regions are shown with a cornflower blue cross in the figure.
The regions for which this ratio increased by more than 25.0 percentage points between 2010 and 2022 were Bucureşti-Ilfov in Romania, Sostinės regionas in Lithuania, Yugozapaden in Bulgaria and Nord Vest in Romania; all had ratios below the EU average in 2010. There were also 4 regions which recorded decreases of more than 25.0 percentage points: Valle d’Aosta/Vallée d’Aoste and Provincia Autonoma di Trento in Italy, Åland in Finland and Voreio Aigaio in Greece.
Regional income differences within EU countries
In the previous sections, the regional differences of household primary income across EU regions have been described, along with the components and changes over time of this income. In this section, the focus is on regional differences within EU countries. Rather than net primary income, a more appropriate measure of regional differences in household income within EU countries is net disposable income – see Box 2. To calculate net disposable income, income taxes (national accounts code D.5) and net social contributions (national accounts code D.61) are deducted from primary income while net social benefits (other than social transfers in kind; national accounts code D.62) and net current transfers (national accounts code D.7) are added.
The deduction of income taxes tends to reduce differences between regions, as they are generally progressive. As such, households in regions with higher incomes are normally taxed at higher rates. The same can be expected for net social contributions, as regions with higher primary income generally tend to have higher employment rates. The opposite can be expected from net social benefits (other than social transfers in kind) and net current transfers. Regions with higher unemployment, more older people or a generally more vulnerable population are likely to receive proportionally more unemployment benefits, pensions and other kinds of monetary benefits. Consequently, it can be inferred that regional inequalities for disposable income depend on the inequalities in primary income as well as inequalities in other factors (such as income tax and social benefits and transfer systems, differences in age structure and unemployment rates between regions).
Box 2: comparing regional income in different EU countries
Even though Eurostat collects and publishes regional data on net disposable income, it’s not recommended to use these data to compare the income in regions of different EU countries. The reason for this is that net disposable income removes from household income the payments made to government but doesn’t include some goods and services provided by government for free or at prices that aren’t economically significant (in other words, social transfers in kind – national accounts code D.63). Most official statistical offices don’t compile regional data for social transfers in kind.
If, for example, net primary income (national accounts code B.5N), net disposable income (B.6N) and net adjusted disposable income (B.7N = B.6N + D.63) are compared for the Netherlands and Belgium in 2022, it can be seen that net primary income per inhabitant was €1 600 higher in the Netherlands (€32 600) than in Belgium (€31 000), while net disposable income was €800 lower in the Netherlands (€24 700) than in Belgium (€25 500) and net adjusted disposable income was €1 000 higher in the Netherlands (€34 400) than in Belgium (€33 400).
To compare the extent of regional differences within each EU country (with more than 2 NUTS level 2 regions), the standard deviations of net primary income and net disposable income per inhabitant as a percentage of the national average have been compiled; population weights have been used for each region in each country.
- The highest levels of regional dispersion (in other words, the highest standard deviations) for net primary income in 2022 were recorded for Romania (50.7), Bulgaria (40.2) and Hungary (30.5). The lowest levels of regional dispersion were recorded for Austria (4.4), the Netherlands (9.5), Ireland (10.0) and Denmark (11.3).
- For disposable income, the highest and lowest levels of regional dispersion were recorded for the same EU countries, but for Bulgaria (27.0) the regional dispersion was lower than for Hungary (28.9) while for Ireland (3.2) the regional dispersion was lower than for the Netherlands (5.2) and Austria (3.8).
- In all EU countries, the standard deviation was lower for disposable income than for primary income. In relative terms, the difference between the levels of regional dispersion for these 2 indicators was narrowest in Hungary and Austria, while it was widest in Romania, Bulgaria and France.
Even though the use of net disposable income rather than net primary income leads to less dispersion of regional values for all EU countries, the high regional dispersion observed for net primary income in some countries (such as Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary) still translates into relatively pronounced regional dispersions (compared with other EU countries) for net disposable income.
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Source: Eurostat (nama_10r_2hhinc) and (nama_10r_3popgdp)
How the change from net primary income to net disposable income affects a region’s relative position compared with the national average can be seen by calculating the ratio between these 2 indicators. Values below 100.0% indicate regions in which the relative position of households worsens due to the secondary distribution of income; values above 100.0% indicate regions in which the relative position of households improves.
- In 2022, net primary income per inhabitant of Ile-de-France (the capital region of France) was 141.9% of the average for France, while net disposable income per inhabitant was 115.9%. The ratio of the 2nd of these ratios to the 1st of them was 81.7%. Other regions for which the ratio between the 2 indicators was below 90.0% included the capital regions of Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Spain, as well as Oberbayern in Germany.
- By contrast, Chemnitz in Germany had a net primary income per inhabitant equal to 73.3% of the German average, while net disposable income was 91.2% of the national average, resulting in a ratio of the latter to the former that was equal to 124.4%. Other regions for which the ratio was above 120.0% included Limousin and La Réunion in France, Severozapaden in Bulgaria, Calabria in Italy and Nord-Est in Romania.
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Source: Eurostat (nama_10r_2hhinc) and (nama_10r_3popgdp)
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
Regional accounts data are compiled annually based on the ESA 2010 requirements and in accordance with the transmission programme. For this article, the latest household data available for NUTS level 2 regions refer to the year 2022.
2024 benchmark revision
Benchmark revisions are coordinated major revisions carried out at least once every 5 years to incorporate new data sources and major changes in international statistical methodology. In national accounts, they aim to ensure a maximum degree of consistency within national accounts. In other words, they should be implemented to obtain a long time series and ensure consistency across countries.
In line with the implementation of a harmonised European revision policy (HERP), 26 EU countries carried out coordinated benchmark revisions of national accounts in 2024; Luxembourg postponed the benchmark revision to 2027.
It should be noted that the 2024 benchmark revisions of French regional data haven’t yet been finalised at the time of writing; finalised revisions are expected towards the end of 2025. Furthermore, the implementation of the 2024 benchmark revisions is incomplete for Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Romania, and consequently there are breaks in series for these countries in Figure 3. For further information, please refer to the data release metadata.
Context
In her political guidelines for the European Commission for 2024–29, President van der Leyen highlighted the need to support people and to strengthen our societies and our social model.
Notes
- For an analysis of GDP per inhabitant differences please refer to Convergence of EU regions redux. ↑
Explore further
Other articles
- Building the system of national accounts – online publication
- European system of national and regional accounts – ESA 2010 (background article)
- Regional economic statistics
- GDP per capita, consumption per capita and price level indices
- National accounts and GDP
- Regional accounts – an analysis of the economy for NUTS level 3 regions
Database
- Regional economic accounts (reg_eco10)
- Regional economic accounts (nama_10reg)
- Gross domestic product indicators (nama_10r_gdp)
- Branch and Household accounts (nama_10r_brch)
Thematic section
Publications
Selected datasets
- Regional economic accounts - ESA 2010 (t_reg_eco)
- Regional economic accounts - ESA2010 (t_nama_10reg)
Methodology
Manuals and further methodological information
- ESA 2010 – manuals and guidelines
- Manual on regional accounts methods – 2013 edition
- Methodological manual on territorial typologies – Eurostat – 2024 edition
Metadata
- Regional economic accounts (ESMS metadata file – reg_eco10_esms)
External links
- European Commission – Economic and financial affairs
- European Commission – EU regional and urban development
- European Commission – New cohesion policy
- European Union – InvestEU programme (2021–27)
- European Commission – 2030 agenda for sustainable development
- Political guidelines for the European Commission for 2024–29
Visualisation
- Maps can be explored interactively using Eurostat’s statistical atlas (see also the dedicated section)
- Regional statistics illustrated
- Regions in Europe