Sub-regional productivity: 2002 to 2021

Estimates for labour productivity^{[footnote 1]} are calculated by dividing output (gross value added, GVA) by a measure of labour input (total hours worked or jobs).

Estimates for Wales ^{[footnote 2]}

• GVA per hour worked (relative to the UK) was 84.1% in 2021, an increase of 0.7 percentage points over the previous year.
• This figure was the second lowest of the twelve UK countries and English regions.
• In 2021, GVA per job filled was 82.1% of the UK figure, a decrease of 0.8 percentage points over the previous year.
• This figure was the second lowest of the 12 UK countries and English regions.
• Estimates published in April 2023 show that GVA per head (relative to the UK) was 74.1%. This was the second lowest GVA per head of the twelve UK countries and English regions.

Sub-Wales estimates ^{[footnote 3] [footnote 4]}

• Powys had the lowest GVA per hour worked of all the areas in the UK in 2021 (62.7% of the UK figure) and Gwynedd and Conwy and Denbighshire had the fourth and fifth lowest GVA per hour worked (70.3% and 70.5% of the UK figure respectively).
• Powys had the second lowest GVA per job in the UK in 2021 (at 62.0% of the UK figure).
• Flintshire and Wrexham was the highest ranked Welsh area for both GVA per hour and GVA per job (at 94.8% and 95.0% of the UK figure respectively).

Footnotes

[1] GVA per hour worked is considered a more comprehensive indicator of labour productivity than GVA per job filled, as it accounts for different working hours and how those differ across regions. Note that both measures are better to assess productivity than GVA per head, which includes people not in the workforce and can also be heavily biased by commuting flows.

[2] The Wales figures used in this headline are from the regional productivity data tables published by ONS

[3] The sub-Wales estimates used in this headline are from the sub-regional productivity data tables published by ONS and are not directly comparable with the Wales level data from the regional productivity tables.

[4] International Territorial Levels (ITL) is the new UK geographies classification system. This has superseded the Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics (NUTS) classification system. ITL is a geographical classification that divides the UK into regions at three different levels (ITL 1, 2 and 3, respectively, moving from larger to smaller units). The Sub-Wales estimates above refer to ITL3.