cricketman

Given how often the British media talk about Spain as being "poor" Eurostat has published the 2009 GDP per capita figures.

These are usually a good measure to how rich a country is.

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cac...2010-AP-EN.PDF

You will see that Spain is richer than Italy and almost as rich as France

For all the talk about how people are paid much better in the UK and is is economically a much richer country, the UK is only a measly 14% richer than Spain per person.

Surprising?

avocados

Your heading is a bit misleading!!

The article relates on a per capita basis, so not an accurate reflection of anything.

Luxembourg and Ireland at the top of the list - says it all!

cricketman

Why is it not a reflection on anything?

GDP per captia is widely thought of as the best measure of the wealth of the people who live in that country. You cant compare GDPs of countries if they have very different populations e.g. how would you compare Spain (45 million) with China (1,400million)!?

Luxembourg is well known to have the richest population in the world!

avocados

I understand your point, but can you honestly say that the Irish are significantly more wealthy than the British ?

Britain is a rich nation, Ireland is a poor nation (I'm Irish). No amount of blarney will convince me otherwise. They thought they got rich on property - then reality hit.

Breaking down individual wealth - In Ireland, upto about 3 years ago, more than 80% of their wealth consisted of property. To be actually wealthy, that figure would need to be much reduced and diversified into things like precious metals, bonds, gilts, cash and a load more extras.

Hence my view.

cricketman

Mmm, yes Ireland and the Irish are relatively richer than the British absolutely. And house prices have very little to do with GDP. Just sounds like you have an Irish inferiority complex, they used to be a poor nation, but not any more!

All of the economic figures tell you this. Unless you dont want to believe any figures that any economic body or government ever publishes. But then you cant say one country is richer than the other "just because you think it is"

jojojojojo

you can produce figures to prove absolutely anything!

Jo xxx

cricketman

So if you dont believe the official stats produced by an independent body endorsed by the EU..... just how do you form your opinions?

Surely you need evidence to form opinions, otherwise it is just bigottry?

manamama

The reason I take no notice of most Stats is that they compare some data then publish it many many months or years later.

This report relates to last year and it's now middle of 2010. What a waste of time and money putting it together..for what purpose? For it only to be debated and talked about to prove nothing really.

Also in the this report who are included in the figures..children or just adults. Some countries have a very low amount of children than others - are they included in the averaging?.

jojojojojo

So how do you know which figures to believe and use as evidence??? You cant, in the end its all down to faith and what you see around you! IMO, most of it is simply different viewpoints, vested interests, propaganda and a bit of bigotry thrown in too!!! Yes, I'm cynical, but you tell me why your figures are more correct than anyone elses??

Jo xxx

cricketman

Yes you can believe certain figures more than others. I work in international market research, its kind of what I do. Everyone needs information in order to help them make decisions.

Btw, these figures are not "mine" they are the standard reliable figures which are used by every company, bank and government in the world!

manamama, GDP per capita is exactly that, it is the country's GDP (i.e. earnings or size of the economy) divided by the number of people in the population i.e. men, women and chidren.

manamama

So this report includes children in figures..so why is your first post making the comment about Spain / UK incomes?

Lost me now....what does the report indicate ?

It tells me nothing about the incomes of each country..

cricketman

hmmpph, maybe I should post this on an economics forum

Or you could look up GDP in wikipedia

manamama

Yes good idea..go to an economics forum..they might be able to help you understand it..

cricketman

Well since you say I dont understand it, I make a very good living out if it!

And I should add that El Pais have chosen to make this their number 1 story today, though I wouldnt think this newspaper is on your reading list

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/econo...lpepueco_4/Tes

jackytoo

According to a lot of comments below the article the spanish don't think much of the stats either. Haven't read them all as there are 312!

Eurostat is a reliable source but their figures are only based on what they can obtain from Governments stats. Spain is not very transparent with their own statistics. A few times Brussels have sent budgets etc. back to Spain as they were not thought to be correct.