Economically speaking, 2004 was a momentous year for the European Union, as the EU added ten new nations encompassing nearly 75 million people to its ranks. Political Calculations has mined the economic and population data for the world's Number 2 economic behemoth (after the United States) to produce the dynamic table below, which you may sort from A to Z, highest to lowest, richest to poorest (and vice-versa) by clicking upon the individual column headings. To make things more interesting, we've broken out the 2004 economic performance for the 15 members of the European Union prior to expansion (marked as "EU15" in the Group column below), the 10 new members who joined in May 2004 (marked as "EU25"), and finally the entire combined colossus (marked as "All"). Each nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been adjusted for Purchasing Price Parity (PPP) with the results presented in Year 2004 U.S. dollars (USD).
| European Union 2004 GDP-PPP, Population and GDP-PPP per Capita |
|---|
| Country | Group | GDP-PPP (billions $USD) | Population (2004 est.) | GDP-PPP per Capita ($USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | EU15 | 255.9 | 8174762 | 31304 |
| Belgium | EU15 | 316.2 | 10348276 | 30556 |
| Cyprus | EU25 | 20.3 | 775927 | 26098 |
| Czech Republic | EU25 | 172.2 | 10246178 | 16806 |
| Denmark | EU15 | 174.4 | 5413392 | 32216 |
| Estonia | EU25 | 19.2 | 1341664 | 14333 |
| Finland | EU15 | 151.2 | 5214512 | 28996 |
| France | EU15 | 1737.0 | 60424213 | 28747 |
| Germany | EU15 | 2362.0 | 82424609 | 28656 |
| Greece | EU15 | 226.4 | 10647529 | 21263 |
| Hungary | EU25 | 149.3 | 10032375 | 14882 |
| Ireland | EU15 | 126.4 | 3969558 | 31842 |
| Italy | EU15 | 1609.0 | 58057477 | 27714 |
| Latvia | EU25 | 26.5 | 2306306 | 11503 |
| Liechtenstein | EU15 | 0.8 | 33436 | 24674 |
| Lithuania | EU25 | 45.2 | 3607899 | 12536 |
| Luxembourg | EU15 | 27.3 | 462690 | 58938 |
| Malta | EU25 | 7.2 | 396851 | 18201 |
| Netherlands | EU15 | 481.1 | 16318199 | 29482 |
| Poland | EU25 | 463.0 | 38626349 | 11987 |
| Portugal | EU15 | 188.7 | 10524145 | 17930 |
| Slovakia | EU25 | 78.9 | 5423567 | 14546 |
| Slovenia | EU25 | 39.4 | 2011473 | 19593 |
| Spain | EU15 | 937.6 | 40280780 | 23277 |
| Sweden | EU15 | 255.4 | 8986400 | 28421 |
| United Kingdom | EU15 | 1782.0 | 60270708 | 29567 |
| EU15 | EU15 | 10631.4 | 381550686 | 27864 |
| EU25 | EU25 | 1021.3 | 74768589 | 13659 |
| European Union | All | 11652.7 | 456319275 | 25536 |
Looking at the New Members
When the European Union expanded to 25 members in 2004, the 10 nations it added, if taken together and considered to be just one nation, would rank behind Italy as the fifth largest nation of the European Union in terms of GDP-PPP and second behind Germany in population. The 10 nations combined would also collectively be the poorest nation of the European Union, falling well behind the poorest EU15 nation of Portugal in the measure of GDP-PPP per capita - a legacy of the totalitarian governments and communist economic systems that constricted many of the new members' economic production potential for much of the twentieth century.
The Richest and Poorest Nations of the EU
There are actually three subcategories here, all measured by GDP-PPP per capita: the richest and poorest nations of the EU15 (the members of the European Union before 2004), the richest and poorest nations of the EU25 (the nations that joined in 2004) and finally, the richest and poorest nations of the entire European Union.
For the EU15, the richest nation is Luxembourg, whose status as a tax haven gives this small nation an outsized GDP given the associated strength of its banking and financial sectors, followed by Denmark. The poorest EU15 nation is Portugal, whose GDP-PPP per capita of $17,930 USD falls well behind next poorest EU15 nation Greece.
Looking at the ten nations that joined the European Union in 2004, the richest is the island nation of Cyprus (including the Turkish-Cypriot controlled portion of the island), followed by Slovenia. The poorest nation among the ten new EU members is Latvia, which is closely followed by Poland in the GDP-PPP per capita ranking.
For the EU as a whole, Luxembourg is the richest nation and Latvia is the poorest. Of the 10 new members added in 2004, only Cyprus ranks ahead of the average GDP-PPP per Capita of all twenty-five members of the EU.
Data Sources:
GDP-PPP Data: 2004 GDP-PPP Data for Individual Nations
Population Data: July 2004 Population Estimates
GSP and GDP per Capita: This data was calculated by simply dividing the published GDP-PPP data by each nation's population estimate for July 2004.
Previously on Political Calculations
2004 Economic and Population Data
- GDP in Africa: 2004
- GDP Rankings of the Americas: 2004 Edition
- EU vs US: Two Years of Economic Data Later....
2002 Economic and Population Data
- EU vs USA
- Cool Tools and GSP
- GDP of the Americas
- GDP in the Muslim World
- GDP in Europe
- GDP: Africa
- GDP Along the Pacific Rim
- GDP in Asia
- GDP: And the rest...
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