(26 April 2018) – More than 80% of the NUTS 2 regions of the European Union saw their unemployment rate for persons aged 15-74 fall in 2017 compared with 2016. However, unemployment rates continued to vary widely across the EU regions, ranging from 1.7% to 29.1%.
The lowest rates were recorded in Prague (1.7%) in the Czech Republic and Trier (2.0%) in Germany, followed by the Czech regions of Central Bohemia and Jihozápad and the German regions of Lower Bavaria and Middle Franconia (all 2.1%).
At the opposite end of the scale, the highest unemployment rates were registered in Western Macedonia (29.1%) in Greece, Melilla (27.6%) in Spain, Western Greece and Extremadura in Spain (both 26.3%), Mayotte (25.9%), an overseas region of France, and Andalusia (25.5%) in Spain.
Among the 275 EU regions for which data are available, 56 had an unemployment rate of 3.8% or less in 2017, half the average of the EU (7.6%).