Patterns of Regional Well-Being

This chapter describes the data collection strategy and operationalization of regional well-being put in place for this research. The novel dataset used in this book collates annual observations at the regional level for the period 1994–2013, the end of the most recent EU multi-annual funding period for which payment data are available. Well-being indicators capture patterns of employment, unemployment, youth inactivity, health, poverty, and income inequality for 189 regions in 16 EU member states. The descriptive mapping of regional well-being since the early 1990s yields two main findings. First, richer regions tend to perform better on all well-being indicators but are nonetheless plagued by consistently higher levels of poverty. Second, levels of poverty and income inequality have not significantly declined since the 1990s in either rich or poor regions. This poverty and inequality standstill calls into question the usefulness of the concept of regional development as ‘economic and employment growth’, which is central to EU regional spending.