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Data from 27 March 2025

Planned article update: March 2026

Highlights

In 2024, 10 countries, representing about 34% of the EU’s population, exceeded the EU average in terms of GDP per capita.

In 2024, Luxembourg, followed by Ireland, recorded the highest levels of GDP per capita in the EU while Bulgaria, followed by Greece and Latvia - the lowest.

In 2024, the euro area had a higher GDP per capita than the EU.

[[File:Purchasing power parities and GDP per capita - flash estimate2024 26-03-2025.xlsx]]

Index of GDP per capita, 2024 (purchasing power standards, EU indexed at 100)

  • Source: Eurostat (online data code: prc_ppp_ind)

This article presents the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita expressed in purchasing power standards (PPS). The information comes from the preliminary estimates of purchasing power parities (PPPs) and gross domestic product (GDP) in the European Union (EU) for the year 2024. The countries included are the 27 EU Member States.

The main reason for producing a preliminary PPP estimate is the need to have PPPs available at the time of the preliminary estimates of annual GDP for the previous year. Provisional estimates covering 36 European countries and with a more detailed breakdown, not only GDP, will be available in June and December.


Overview

In 2024, Luxembourg and Ireland recorded the highest level of GDP per capita in the EU, at 141% and 111% above the EU average. Bulgaria was the EU country with the lowest GDP per capita, at 34% below the EU average.

Horizontal bar chart showing index of GDP per capita as purchasing power standards for the EU, euro area and individual EU member States for the year 2024. The EU is indexed at 100.
Figure 1: Index of GDP per capita, 2024, (EU=100)
Source: Eurostat (prc_ppp_ind)

Relative volumes of GDP per capita

In international comparisons of national accounts data, like GDP per capita, it is desirable not only to express the figures in a common currency, but also to adjust for differences in price levels. Failing to do so would result in an overestimation of GDP levels for countries with high price levels, relative to countries with low price levels.

Countries' volume indices of GDP per capita are shown in the graph above. The dispersion in GDP per capita across the EU Member States is quite remarkable.

Luxembourg has by far the highest GDP per capita among all the 27 countries included in this comparison, at 141% above the EU average. This is partly explained by the fact that a large number of foreign residents are employed in the country and thus contribute to its GDP, while they are not part of Luxembourg's resident population. Their consumption expenditure is recorded in the national accounts of their country of residence.

Ireland comes out second among the EU Member States, at 111% above the EU average, followed by the Netherlands and Denmark, each with a GDP per capita more than 20% above the average. The high level of GDP per capita in Ireland can be partly explained by the presence of large multinational companies holding intellectual property. The associated contract manufacturing with these assets contribute to GDP, while a large part of the income earned from this production is returned to the companies' ultimate owners abroad.

Belgium, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Malta and Finland were the other EU Member States with a GDP per capita above the EU average. France, Italy, Cyprus, Spain, Czechia and Slovenia were less than 10% below that average, followed by Lithuania and Portugal at 10% to 20% below. The GDP per capita of Estonia, Poland, Romania, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and Latvia was 30% lower than the EU average. Greece's GDP per capita stood at 30% under the EU average and Bulgaria recorded a GDP per capita at 34% below the EU average.


Data sources

Within the framework of the Eurostat-OECD Purchasing power parities programme, price surveys covering actual individual consumption, collective consumption and gross fixed capital formation are carried out on an annual basis. For basic headings for which prices were not collected during 2024, new PPPs were derived by extrapolating existing PPPs in previous years ( survey years) with temporal adjustment factors. The resulting PPPs are applied to GDP and national accounts aggregates in order to eliminate the effect of different price levels across countries.

The indices of relative volumes of GDP per capita published in this article have been adjusted for price level differences, and are expressed in relation to the European Union average (EU=100). Thus, for instance, if a country's volume index is below 100, that country's level of GDP per capita is lower than for the EU as a whole. The price level adjustment factors, referred to as purchasing power parities, can also be used in comparison of countries' price levels.

Volume indices are not intended to rank countries strictly. In fact, they only provide an indication of the order of magnitude of the volume level in one country in relation to others, particularly when countries are clustered around a very narrow range of outcomes. The level of uncertainty associated with the basic price and national accounts data, and the methods used for compiling PPPs imply that differences between countries that have indices within a close range should not be over-interpreted.


Context

The main use of PPPs is to convert national accounts aggregates, like the gross domestic product (GDP) of different countries, into comparable volume aggregates. Applying nominal exchange rates in this process would overestimate the GDP of countries with high price levels relative to countries with low price levels. The use of PPPs ensures that the GDP of all countries is valued at a uniform price level and thus reflects only differences in the actual volume of the economy.

GDP per capita volume indices (on a regional basis - see Economy at regional level) are used in the allocation of cohesion policy funds within the EU. Funding is concentrated on less developed regions, with the goal of reducing economic, social and territorial disparities.

The provisional PPP estimates for year t are released at t+6 months. The data release is accompanied by two news items presenting the provisional estimates of Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) per capita and volume indices of AIC and GDP, and the price levels for a selection of analytical categories comprising household expenditure.

By the end of September (t+9 months) each year, countries report for the first time the expenditures at basic heading level for the year t. The PPPs calculated with these expenditures are released in t+12 months and referred to as first estimates. At the same time as the first estimates of PPPs are calculated for t, the second or intermediate estimates of PPPs for the year t-1 and the third or final estimates of PPPs for the year t-2 are calculated.

In 2022 Eurostat introduced the PPP preliminary estimates, which will be regularly released in March year t+1. Given the availability of the data sources and the possibility of applying a similar method to that used for the first estimates at t+6, Eurostat calculates GDP PPPs for the EU 27 Member States at the most detailed level possible and using the latest available prices and national accounts data.

The main differences in the compilation process between the PPP preliminary estimates and the provisional PPP estimates released at t+6 months are:

  • in terms of geographical coverage – the provisional estimates will include all 36 countries, not just the EU 27 Member States
  • in terms of level of detail – the provisional estimates will be available for all analytical categories, not just for GDP
  • in terms of information available - the provisional estimates include more complete and more final price data from the countries than the PPP preliminary estimates. Also the provisional estimates are based on the national accounts data available at the end of May of year t.

Explore further

Other articles


Database
Purchasing power parities (PPPs), price level indices and real expenditures for ESA2010 aggregates (prc_ppp_ind)
Convergence indicators (prc_ppp_conv)


Thematic section


Publications

Selected datasets
Comparative price levels (tec00120)
Price and volume convergence between EU Member States (tec00121)
GDP per capita in PPS (tec00114)


Methodology


External links


Legislation


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