| Summary: | One of the European Union's major goals is to reduce disparities between countries and regions. We compute sigma-convergence at national and regional level (NUTS2) on GDP per capita and employment rates to analyze the evolution of convergence in the EU. Results show growing disparities both at regional and national levels. Quartiles are used to separate the best and the worst performing regions. Comparing the average performance of the 25% most developed regions with the one of the 25% least developed regions reveals that the widening gaps are due to the increasing performance of the former and the worsening situation of the latter. In terms of both GDP and employment, after 2009 the leading regions enjoy high growth rates, while the regions lagging behind show small or negative growth. According to the results, the divergence in regional employment rates is currently at the highest level since 2000. Choropleth maps are used to illustrate the levels and the evolution of the two indicators at regional level.
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