This data story provides a short overview of the state of ‘economic cohesion’ in the EU by assessing long-term economic convergence between regions over the past 20 years.

This data story explains the gender equality indices of advantage and disadvantage:

Per thousands inhabitants (annual average)
EU-28 = 3.64
HR: 2002-2011

Source: Eurostat

A guide to visualizing #CohesionOpenData: creating pie and bar charts.

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak had a severe impact on the European economy with strongly negative regional impacts. The latest regional GDP data point to a broad-based recovery in 2021. Explore regional GDP trends in this datastory.

The EU Solidarity Fund - EUSF - was established in 2002 following severe floods in Central Europe. Between 2002 and 2022, the EUSF mobilised a total of over EUR 8.2 billion for interventions in 127 disaster events. Italy is by far the biggest beneficiary of the Fund with over EUR 3 billion received so far.

The expansion of renewable energies production is a key strategy for achieving a climate-neutral continent by 2050. Explore the untapped potential for renewable energy in the EU's regions.

The source data used in this analysis are :
1. Based on EDGAR, the global GHG emissions database from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. The reported data include emissions from energy, industry, buildings, transport, agriculture, and waste but they exclude emissions from shipping and aviation. These latter emissions cannot be assigned to individual regions. GHG include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gasses. https://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
2. GDP and population data: https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/territorial/ardeco-database_en

The EU Social Progress Index (EU-SPI) is a measure of societal development and quality of life at the regional level that goes beyond the Gross Domestic Product. The Index measures social progress in European regions, at the NUTS2 level, using twelve components described by a total number of fifty-five comparable social and environmental indicators, purposefully excluding economic aspects. Its components are further aggregated into three broader dimensions describing respectively basic, intermediate and more sophisticated aspects of social progress.

This report is part of a series of studies that examines Europeans' awareness of and attitudes towards EU Regional Policy.

Respondents were asked about the domains that should be targeted for investment They were asked whether they think each of 11 domains are more or less important for their city or region . All but one of the domains are mentioned among the more important for their city or region by at least a relative majority of respondents.

More than nine in ten respondents (91%) consider education, health or social infrastructures one of the more important domains for investment for their city or region, followed by the environment (90%) and renewable and clean energy (87%). At least eight in ten respondents also mention support for small and medium-sized businesses (81%) and research and innovation (80%) are more important.

Smaller majorities mention the other investment domains. At least three quarters of respondents say investment in vocational training (78%) and transport facilities (75%) are the more important, while over six in ten identify energy networks (63%) and just under six in ten say tourism and culture (57%).

Finally, just over half the respondents say that broadband Internet access (51%) is one of the more important domains for investment for their city or region, while just under half say the same about investment in the reception and integration of migrants and refugees (48%).