THE EU RICHEST COUNTRIES

The ranking of the EU richest countries is based on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) database of April 2013. The ranking is done according to GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita.

GDP (PPP) per capita compares generalized differences in the living standards on the whole between nations because PPP takes into account the relative cost of living and the inflation rate of countries, rather than just exchange rates which may distort the real differences in income. The indicator measures GDP converted to a common set of prices in a common currency (international dollars) so that real quantity comparisons can be made between countries and over time.

In parenthesis is the ranking of the EU country out of 184 countries in the world. The results are interesting:

1. Luxembourg (2)
2. Austria (12)
3. Ireland (13)
4. Netherlands (14)
5. Sweden (15)
6. Germany (18)
7. Denmark (20)
8. Belgium (21)
9. United Kingdom (23)
10. Finland (24)
11. France (25)
12. Spain (31)
13. Italy (32)
14. Slovenia (35)
15. Malta (36)
16. Czech Republic (37)
17. Slovakia (41)
18. Greece (42)
19. Portugal (43)
20. Lithuania (44)
21. Estonia (45)
22. Poland (46)
23. Hungary (48)
24. Latvia (50)
25. Croatia (54)
26. Bulgaria (66)
27. Romania (73)

* Figures for Cyprus not provided by the IMF due to the ongoing crisis