On average, the Maltese are much wealthier than many of their fellow EU citizens, including those in France, Germany, the UK and Italy, regional statistics by Eurostat show.

The EU’s statistics office said that Malta’s GDP per capita in 2010 grew by more than four per cent over the previous year when, in many other EU member states, it fell considerably due to the financial crisis and recession.

Compared to certain regions, including major European capitals, Malta’s GDP per capita is low. However, it is higher than that of many western European regions.

Eurostat put the island’s GDP per capita in 2010 at 86 per cent of the EU’s average, up from the 81.9 per cent of 2009. This makes Malta wealthier than all southern Italian regions, including Sicily and Sardinia, many regions in France, including Lorianne and Franche-Comte, all regions in central and southern Spain, all of Portugal and many of the Greek regions.

Compared to Eastern European countries, Malta’s GDP fares much better across the board.

Eurostat said that Malta’s GDP per capita in 2010 stood at €15,200. On a general level, Eurostat said that, in 2010, GDP per capita ranged from 26 per cent of the EU27 average in the region of Severozapaden, in Bulgaria, to 328 per cent of the average in the inner London region.

London was by far the wealthiest region in the EU (328 per cent of the average) followed by Luxembourg (266 per cent), Brussels (223 per cent) and Hamburg (203 per cent).

The poorest regions were in Bulgaria and Romania.