Brussels - Luxemburgers are two-and-a-half times richer than the European Union average, while Bulgarians are by far the bloc's poorest citizens, according to EU figures released Thursday. The disparity in EU wealth is reflected in latest figures from the European statistical institute Eurostat, which compared gross domestic product (GDP) per inhabitant, adjusted for local purchasing power, in the EU's 27 member states.
Preliminary figures for 2008 show that GDP per person ranges from 253 per cent of the EU average in Luxembourg, to 40 per cent in Bulgaria.
Italians own the average EU wealth, which is expressed as GDP per inhabitant in Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) = 100. PPS is an artificial currency unit that eliminates price level differences between countries.
The table below shows that Europe's richest citizens are in Luxembourg, Ireland, the Netherlands and Austria, while its poorest are in Central and Eastern Europe.
The high level of GDP per inhabitant in Luxembourg is partly due to the large share of foreigners who work in the Grand Duchy, Eurostat said. While contributing to the country's GDP, these workers are not taken into consideration as part of the resident population, which is used to calculate GDP per inhabitant.
GDP per inhabitant in PPS, 2008, EU27 = 100 Luxembourg 253 Ireland 140 Netherlands 135 Austria 123 Sweden 121 Denmark 119 Britain 117 Finland 116 Germany 116 Belgium 115 France 107 Spain 104 Italy 100 EU27 100 Greece 95 Cyprus 95 Slovenia 90 Czech Republic 80 Malta 76 Portugal 75 Slovakia 72 Estonia 67 Hungary 63 Lithuania 61 Poland 57 Latvia 56 Romania 46 Bulgaria 40
Source: Eurostat
