Business · Economy · 4 hrs ago
Regional productivity gaps widened as employment differences narrowed
Spain’s regional accounts show that regional GDP growth alone can give an incomplete picture of economic progress.
From 2019 to 2025, the economies of the Valencian Community and Galicia each grew by about 10% in real terms.
But GDP per person rose by less than 1% in Valencia and about 10% in Galicia, as their populations grew by 9.2% and 0.9%, respectively.
Across Spain’s 17 regions, productivity differences widened between 2000 and 2025, while differences in employment rates narrowed.
Employment and demographic changes partly offset the larger productivity gaps when GDP per person was compared.
In the years from 2019 to 2025, regions with faster population growth tended to have faster total GDP growth but slower growth per person; the analysis distinguishes growth in economic size from growth per resident or worker.
Regional gaps in productivity per employed person widened in Spain from 2000 to 2025, while differences in employment rates narrowed.
The coefficient of variation for productivity rose from 7.9% in 2000 to 9.5% in 2025.
Over the same period, the coefficient for employment rates fell from 13.1% to 10.4%.
These narrowing employment differences partly offset the wider productivity gaps in regional GDP per working-age person.
From 2019 to 2025, the Valencian Community and Galicia each recorded real GDP growth of about 10%, but their population and GDP-per-capita trends differed sharply.
- Who
- Spain’s 17 autonomous communities.
- What
- Productivity differences between regions widened, while differences in employment rates narrowed.
- When
- From 2000 to 2025; recent comparisons also cover 2019 to 2025.
- Where
- Spain.
- Why
- Narrower differences in employment rates and demographic factors partly offset wider productivity gaps in measures of GDP per person.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The coefficient of variation for productivity per employed person was 7.9%, and for employment rates it was 13.1%.
The Valencian Community and Galicia each recorded real GDP growth of about 10%, while their population growth differed.
The productivity coefficient of variation had risen to 9.5%, while the employment-rate coefficient had fallen to 10.4%.
- Productivity variation, 2000
- 7.9%
- Productivity variation, 2025
- 9.5%
- Employment-rate variation, 2000
- 13.1%
- Employment-rate variation, 2025
- 10.4%
- Valencian Community population growth, 2019–2025
- 9.2%
- Galicia population growth, 2019–2025
- 0.9%