In 2017, regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, expressed in terms of purchasing power standards, ranges from only 31% of the European Union average in the Northwest region of Bulgaria to 628% in the West London-West region of the United Kingdom, show the latest European statistics, quoted by Econ.bg 

Five of the seven European regions with the lowest living standards are in Bulgaria, Eurostat reports.

Leaders from all 281 European regions, according to economic activity reflected in the purchasing power of the population in 2017, are London-West in the United Kingdom (626% of the average European GDP), Luxembourg (253%), Southern Ireland (220% Hamburg in Germany (202%), Brussels region in Belgium (196%), Eastern and Central Ireland (189%) and Prague region in the Czech Republic (187%).

In 21 European regions, GDP per capita in 2017 was 50 percentage points or more above the EU average: five regions in Germany, two in the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK, and one in Belgium, the Czech Republic the Republic, Denmark, France, Slovakia, Poland, Sweden and Luxembourg, with the population of these 21 regions being 52.3 million.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are 20 European regions where GDP per capita was below 50% of the EU average in 2017. In this negative ranking, five regions are from Bulgaria (among the seven areas with the lowest life expectancy standard), four from Greece and Hungary, three from Poland and two from France from Romania. The population of these 20 poorest European regions is 22.9 million.

The Northwest region of Bulgaria is the region in 2017 with the lowest living standard, equaling only 31% of the European average, followed by another Bulgarian region - South-Central (34%).

In the Northwestern region of Bulgaria, the GDP per capita for 2017 was only 4600 euros and a total of 3,486 billion euro, or 6,7% of the national GDP. At the same time, the GDP per capita in the South-Western region of Bulgaria was 11,700 euros and in the total amount of 24,742 billion euro or 47,9% of the national GDP.

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