8797 'Rich' and 'poor' regions in Italy: a league table

1 London 185.2
2 South East 130.0
3 East 113.6
4 Scotland 113.3
5 South West 111.7
6 East Midlands 109.1
7 West Midlands 106.0
8 North West 104.2
9 Yorkshire & the Humber 102.9
10 Northern Ireland 97.0
11 North East 96.4
12 Wales 92.2

The UK figures are also provided for smaller regions than those given above. The very lowest is for West Wales and the Valleys , which would come just above Molise if (interesting thought) it were in Italy.

Typical to put Scotland (Wales, Northern Ireland) as regions ..... grrrrrrrrrrowl.

re. Scotland etc. - know what you mean, but that's regions of the EU, in which for Eurostat's purposes the UK, Italy, Germany etc. are also 'regions'. No slight intended!

As Bosco says, these are the EU regions, which they are trying, with HM govs assistance to impose, to make a "Europe of the Regions", and to downgrade National Governments.
Despite the electorate's reluctance, the infrastructure is in place throughout the UK, and is an expensive and pointless additional expense, also almost completely undemocratic.

Sorry for the rant!

8o)

Thanks an interesting Italian list and it looks like, with the exception of Lazio (Rome), there still and really is a North/South divide.

[url=http://goeurope.about.com/cs/italy/l/bl_italy_region.htm]Italy Region Map - 20 Italian Regions - Europe for Visitors[/url]

wwwtuscanyfortwo.com

Surprised Sardinia's in the bottom half.

Initially, I was pleasantly surprised by these figures - quite happy that Umbria was achieving mediocrity within the EU :-)

Then, I realised that they derive from 2005 data, so they presumably include the 10 accession states who joined the EU in may 2004? If so, that puts an altogether different spin on things :-(

[quote=PAS 55;82690]Surprised Sardinia's in the bottom half.[/quote]
Really!!! Do you really believe that everyone there and in Campania, etc are being completely honest about their declared earnings :nah:

If this was based on [I]real[/I], declared earnings, the league table would look a lot different...

Its GDP (Gross domestic Product) rahter than earnings I think .. .though I agree that a lot (more?) of the production down south may not go through the books!

Yes, you're right Pigro, these are EU27 figures, with some of the Romanian and Bulgarian regions anchoring the bottom!

[url]http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/PGP_PRD_CAT_PREREL/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2007/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2007_MONTH_02/1-19022007-EN-AP.PDF[/url]

As a northern Italian semi-resident and a north-of-England semi-resident, one of the things that always amuses me about this and similar tables is the contrast between the two areas. Italians often tell me how wonderful the English economy is compared to Italy (and possibly adjust their bills to suit!). They usually look totally disbelieving when I try to suggest that outside of the gilded South-East, much of the UK is rather poorer than northern Italy.

Devils advocate position .... Not sure how sound it is to equate GDP to personal 'wealth'. You can produce shedloads of stuff that nobody buys, or that is sold at a loss. You can also pay the employees who produce it any wages you see fit, and (eg. nationalised industry) the wages don't always need to be directly related to productivity or economic conditions. A better measure would be average net disposable income after debt servicing costs deducted or something similar .. .but they'd never do that (too complex to calculae and too scary to publish!)

[quote=Italiargh;82696]Really!!! Do you really believe that everyone there and in Campania, etc are being completely honest about their declared earnings :nah:

If this was based on [I]real[/I], declared earnings, the league table would look a lot different...[/quote]

I'm sure you're absolutely right about declared earnings. But not sure you're right about this having any significant effect on relative positions in the table.

For that to be the case, we'd have to assume that northern Italian entrepreneurs and accountants are not also adept practitioners within the 'black economy'. To me, this seems unlikely...

And at the sort of dinner-parties to which I do not get invited, I suspect a few might even assert their moral right to 'cook the books' to avoid subsidising the indigent South and the spendthrift bureaucrats of Lazio?

Mmm thought Liguria would be higher - have an image of it as a Riviera millionaire's playground. Any residents there can advise one way or the other?

Dora

[quote=dora_c;83348]Mmm thought Liguria would be higher - have an image of it as a Riviera millionaire's playground. Any residents there can advise one way or the other?

Dora[/quote]

Almost no flat land for modern intensive agriculture (virtually no fields, no livestock, and with tiny barely economic vineyards). Horticulture suffers increasing competition from Holland and air-freight from the tropics. Traditional heavy industry and engineering in Genoa and Savona declined severely as it did in all other similar European locations, and as did the port of Genoa (though this is now much recovered). The tourist industry is seasonal and increasingly suffers competition from air-travel to more exotic locations overseas and increased ease of travel to southern Italy... there has been a major and continuing decline in number of hotels/bedrooms and their replacement by second homes without productive occupants. The highest proportion of retired people of any region in Italy. Etc.

Although not exactly on the breadline, most of Liguria is not at all like Portofino.

I am shocked that lazio is 4th,whilst piemonte is only 9th

Also there is no region called bolzano,and i see trento is also its own region.What happened to trentino/alto adige.

anyway stick to my guns.. molise is the place to buy......

boy, I haven't posted for ages, but now back in Calabria so plenty of time on hands! (that a 4 month old baby allows). Can't quite remember how you calculate GDP, but if it is anything to do with expenditure, I can well imagine why the South comes bottom... few here buy anything... lots is swapped/ grown and trips to the shops are for things that you really can't do yourself... washing up liquid etc. Strangely I have swapped Northern Ireland (at the bottom of the UK league) for Calabria and it is difficult to compare the 2. Ostensibly NI is clearly richer (cars, houses, material goods)(and I very much doubt that NI will stay at the bottom next time...a 4 bed house in Belfast will now set you back over £600,000) but I would have to say the quality of life must be higher here (weather, food, sea)... maybe now Calabria is swamped with British/Irish trying to buy cheap properties things will change although I don't know that people who are trying to buy houses for £80,000 will necessarily add long term to the community... but who knows. Wandering thoughts for a Sat evening... now must get back to what I really wanted and that was to find other bods based in Calabria. Anyone any forum pointers?
Thanks
Lisa

[quote=bosco;83357]Almost no flat land for modern intensive agriculture (virtually no fields, no livestock, and with tiny barely economic vineyards). Horticulture suffers increasing competition from Holland and air-freight from the tropics. Traditional heavy industry and engineering in Genoa and Savona declined severely as it did in all other similar European locations, and as did the port of Genoa (though this is now much recovered). The tourist industry is seasonal and increasingly suffers competition from air-travel to more exotic locations overseas and increased ease of travel to southern Italy... there has been a major and continuing decline in number of hotels/bedrooms and their replacement by second homes without productive occupants. The highest proportion of retired people of any region in Italy. Etc.

Although not exactly on the breadline, most of Liguria is not at all like Portofino.[/quote]
Thanks for a really detailed and interesting reply.

I have to confess I have only been driving through it on my way to visit my daughter in the S of France.

I understand about the flowers. My father-in-law was in this business in Devon, and suffered in the same way. Though I understand now that the Kenyan flower industry has been badly hit by the recent violence and social disruption. A pity for them, though I would rather they were growing something more useful to themselves.

Dora

[quote=giovanni;83383]

Also there is no region called bolzano,and i see trento is also its own region.What happened to trentino/alto adige.[/quote]

Bolzano came in first, beating Lombardy by a very short head.

I too was surprised that the EC apparently splits up Trentino-Alto Adige for its regional analysis.