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26 July 2013updated 26 Sep 2015 12:31pm

British regions replaced by economies of the same size

Boris Johnson, mayor of… UAE?

By Alex Hern

The ONS has released an infographic showing how much various regions of the UK contributed to the nation’s economy. It shows the gross value-added (GVA) of Britain’s constituent nations and regions, which is a statistical measure roughly equivalent to a country’s GDP. London and the South East storm away from the rest of the pack, and Scotland and the North West are both tied for third place. Take a look:

But if you want something easier to visualise, try this. Each of the regions is matched to a country with an equivalent GDP. London’s economy is roughly the size of the UAE’s, the South East is as valuable as Israel, and so on.

The boring bit: Economies are matched based on the IMF’s 2012 figures for nominal GDP. The GVA was converted to dollars at today’s exchange rate. Scotland and the North West are actually both closest in size to Romania but that would have made for a boring map.

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