Mauricas: Vilnius overtook Tallinn and became the richest region in the Baltic States

“For a long time, the richest region in the Baltic States was the Tallinn region (Harju county), but in 2022 Vilnius overtook Tallinn. An impressive jump for Vilnius, bearing in mind that in 2014 the Tallinn region was 22 percent, and in 2004 – even 40 percent. richer than the Vilnius region.

It is also interesting that in 2022 the nominal GDP per capita of the Vilnius region has caught up with the EU average, so to see how average Europeans live, it is enough to go to Vilnius,” the economist shared in his post on the Facebook social network.

Ž. According to Mauric, Kaunas is also catching up with Riga.

“In 2015 the gap between Riga and Kaunas reached 30 percent, and in 2022 – already only 19 percent. Most other regions of Lithuania also showed rapid growth, but the gap between Vilnius and other regions of Lithuania remains considerable.

The relatively greater weight of less affluent regions in Lithuania explains why Estonia, which is basically a single city state, has a higher GDP per capita than Lithuania.

Estonia’s GDP per capita in 2022 reached 76 percent EU average, and Lithuania – 67 percent, despite the fact that the Vilnius region’s indicator reached 100 percent. EU average, and Tallinn – 99 percent,” he compared.

Also, as stated, the Latgale region in Latvia remains the poorest region in the Baltic States, and the gap between Latgale and other Baltic regions continues to increase.

“This is quite a challenge for Latvia, especially considering the increased confrontation between East and West and the fact that Latvians (46%) do not constitute the majority of the population in this region (in the largest city of Latgale, Daugpils, Latvians constitute only 21% of the population, while the majority of the population consists of Russians and Belarusians)”, said the economist.