Productivity in Europe

Although every country has an imbalance, data shows that the UK is the third most spatially imbalanced economy in Europe with only Poland and Romania doing worse. Levelling-up is absolutely crucial.

Work from the OECD and the Office for National Statistics has shown how productivity is highly correlated with a number of important outcomes and measures of life quality and chances including: wages, life expectancy, disposable income, crime rates and turnout in elections.  

The UK is not alone in having regional variation in productivity as seen in the maps above which show GVA per worker for the UK, Germany, France and Italy. However, what can also be seen from this figure and the raw data from OECD and Eurostat is that the UK is the third most spatially imbalanced economy in Europe with only Poland and Romania doing worse. 

Because of the high correlation between productivity and a raft of socio-economic factors, levelling-up this imbalance is high on the national agenda.