The Bucharest-Ilfov region is among the EU regions with the highest growth in GDP per capita in the 2019-2024 period, according to Eurostat, alongside regions in Ireland, Malta, and France.
“The most robust GDP growth was recorded in the Irish capital region of Eastern and Midland, which also had the highest GDP per inhabitant in 2024, as GDP rose 38.0% between 2019 and 2024. The other 2 Irish regions also saw very high increases: Northern and Western up 36.4% (the 2nd highest in the EU) and Southern up 26.0% (6th highest),” Eurostat stated.
Outside Ireland, the highest growth rates were recorded in the Bucharest-Ilfov region (33%), Malta (32.9%), and the French outermost region of Mayotte (32.1%).
Overall, EU GDP grew by an average of 5.6% in real terms between 2019 and 2024. Of the 244 level 2 regions in the EU’s common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS 2), 197 regions experienced growth.
Almost all of the EU’s capital regions recorded an expansion in economic activity during the period under consideration, with Helsinki-Uusimaa in Finland being the only exception, as GDP fell 1.9% in real terms.
At the same time, GDP per capita declined in 46 regions and remained unchanged in a single region — Ciudad de Ceuta, in Spain.
The Bulgarian region of Yugoiztochen recorded the largest contraction in economic activity over the 2019-2024 period, with GDP falling by 20.5%.
Eurostat also showed that four other regions recorded double-digit contractions, namely Dytiki Makedonia (Greece), down 18%; Groningen (the Netherlands), down 14%; and Sud-Muntenia and Sud-Vest Oltenia (both in Romania), down 13.5% and 11.3%, respectively.
The four other regions in Romania, namely North-West (15.8%), West (14.3%), Center (6.3%), and North-East (0.4%), saw moderate growth.