“Want to see how average Europeans live? Come to Vilnius”: the capital county has become the richest region in the Baltic States | Business

“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 writes on his Facebook account.

Meanwhile, the GDP of the Vilnius region per capita according to purchasing power parity – that is, taking into account price differences – already exceeds the EU average: in 2022 reached 133 percent EU average.

“Kaunas is also not sleeping and is rapidly 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”, said Ž. Mauricas.

True, if we were to compare Lithuania’s GDP according to purchasing power parity – that is, taking into account prices – it would reach 87 percent. EU average and would exceed not only Estonia, but also the indicator of 9 other European countries.

Stating that Estonia is a one-city state, the economist means that 60% of the production is generated in the Tallinn region (Harju county). Estonia’s GDP, while in the Vilnius region (Vilnius county) – only 44 percent. GDP of Lithuania. As much as 69 percent is created in the Riga region. GDP of Latvia.

Ž. Mauricas notes that the Latgale region remains the poorest region in the Baltic States, and the gap between Latgale and other Baltic regions continues to increase.

“This is a considerable challenge for Latvia (and not only) – 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, and the majority the population consists of Russians and Belarusians). During my bicycle trip along the eastern border of the Baltic States, I noticed that in other towns of Latgale (e.g. Kraslava, Ludza, Dagda) the Russian language prevails in the public space, and it is Russian, not English, that is the “lingua franca” in a large part of Latgale (Latvian /the Latgalian language is widely used in the northern part of Latgale, English is also widely used there)”, the Luminor economist teaches.

According to him, the poor use of Latvian and English distances this region not only economically, but also in terms of value from the European Union, while the low level of economic progress (Latgale’s GDP per capita is similar to that of Russia and Belarus) and the widespread use of the Russian language create more favorable conditions for Russia and the authoritarian regimes that took over Belarus to affect the people of this region.

“It is interesting that in Estonia’s Narva region (Ida Viruma) Estonians make up an even smaller share (18%) of the population than Latvians in Latgale (46%), but this region is almost twice as rich as Latgale (and four times as much as Russia) , which reduces the desire of the residents of the region to admire the regimes of Russia and Belarus (the story about the promenades built with EU funds in Narva and Ivangorod is worth it alone – in Ivangorod it cost more, but it is 8 times shorter)”, writes Ž.Mauricas.

The regions are divided according to the EU NUTS 3 (French Nomenclature des unités territoriales statistiques) classification.

According to this classification, there are 10 regions (10 counties) in Lithuania, 6 regions in Latvia (statistics of the “Riga” and “Pieriga” regions are presented together as Riga in the graph), and 5 regions in Estonia (the names of Estonian regions are given in the graph according to the largest of these regions city ​​- the original names are Harju County (Tallinn), Southern Estonia (Tartu), Ida Viruma (Narva), Central Estonia (Rakvere) and Western Estonia (Pernu).