GDP per capita¹ in Luxembourg², expressed in terms of purchasing power standards³ (PPS), was more than twice the EU25 average in 2004, while Ireland was about 40% above average, and the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden and the United Kingdom around 20% above average. Finland, France and Germany recorded figures about 10% above the EU25 average, and Italy and Spain were at the level of the average.

Luxembourg is an anomoly because part of its workforce lives in neighbouring countries.

Cyprus, Greece and Slovenia were about 20% below the EU25 average. Portugal, the Czech Republic and Malta were around 30% below average, and Hungary about 40% below. Slovakia, Estonia, Poland and Lithuania were around half the average, while Latvia was just below 45% of the EU25 average.

These revised data⁴ for 2004 and final data for 2003 are published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

1. The GDP per capita volume indices in this News Release are not fully comparable across countries because not all EU Member States have yet allocated “financial intermediation services indirectly measured” (FISIM) to user sectors. The countries who reported the allocation so far showed upwards revisions of GDP between 0.5% and 2.0%. The Member States which have not yet allocated FISIM are the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. In addition Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Japan have not yet made this change. For more details on FISIM see "Changes to National Accounts in 2005" on the Eurostat website (Activities / Eurostat news).
2. The GDP per capita in Luxembourg is very high partly due to the large share of cross-border workers in total employment. While contributing to GDP, they are not taken into consideration as part of the resident population which is used to calculate GDP per capita.
3. The PPS (purchasing power standard) is an artificial currency unit that reflects differences in national price levels that are not taken into account by exchange rates. This unit allows meaningful volume comparisons of economic indicators between countries.
4. The regular publication schedule of Purchasing Power Parities includes three estimates for a particular year. For 2004, the first estimate (nowcast), based on projections, was published in News Release 75/2005 of 3 June 2005. This second estimate (preliminary data) is partly based on prices collected in 2004. More detailed information will be published by Eurostat in a “Statistics in Focus” in February 2006. The third estimate (final data) will become available by end-2006. It is mainly national accounts data that will be revised between the second and third estimates.

GDP per capita in PPS, EU25 = 100

* Estimated by Eurostat

: Data not available

USA and Japan: source OECD