"Campania is the Lombardy of the South": this is what could be said in the light of the latest Eurostat data which testify how the Vesuvius region drives the economy of the South, just as that of the "Madunina" drives the North (and throughout the country). But for Campania and all of the South there is no reason to rejoice: the regions of the South are worth four times less than the regions of the North-East and North-West. To certify it Eurostat data on GDP: the gross product of the South is equal to 274 billion euros, a quarter of that of the north. In detail: in 2019 the national GDP was worth 1.789 billion euros, broken down as follows: 1.004 billion in the North (591 billion in the North-West and 413 billion in the North-East), 385 billion in the Centre, 273 billion in the South and 620 million in the major islands.
Calabria and Sicily are the regions with the lowest per capita income, but in the South the regions with the least wealth are Molise and Basilicata. Campania, on the other hand, establishes itself as the economic engine of the South: of the 274 billion euro GDP of the whole of southern Italy, almost half (109,6 billion) is the prerogative of the region around Naples. Obviously the different degree of wealth of the different geographical areas is also reflected in the different degree of well-being, with the citizens of the South and Islands below the average per capita GDP. If in Italy this indicator is equal to 29.700 euros per person, in the southern peninsular regions the value is reduced to 19.600 euros, to further decrease to 18.800 euros as regards the two island regions.
Really the welfare of Lombardy alone (39.500 euros of GDP per capita) is more than double that of the Southern and Islands macro-regions. Italy is not the only EU country to record such a marked gap between regions. There are also Ireland, Spain and France with very rich regions and others that are poorer, and even countries with clear demarcation between North and South, but among the Eurozone countries only Italy, with its South, has regions with such a disadvantaged economic situation. And it is the comparison that convinces. Just to give a few examples, in Valle d'Aosta in 2019 there were 38.700 euros per person per year, more than double in Calabria with just 17.400 euros per capita per year; in Molise 21.300, ten thousand less than Piedmont (31.700); in Liguria there were 32.200 while at the same time in Puglia there were 19.300. Not to mention Veneto, with its 33.600 euros per person a year compared to the 17.900 of the inhabitants of Sicily.
