Country profile on rural characteristics Spain - RuDI

The GDP per capita in Spain has shown in the period 1996-2003 a considerably moredynamic growth than in EU25. Although urban areas lead this growth trend, also in ruralareas GDP per capita increased at a significantly quicker pace and was in 2003 above theEU25 average (Table 3). Although urban GDP per capita remains below EU25 average,the annual percentage changes show how rapidly Spain is converging to EU standards.The composition of GDP in rural areas has varied and the primary sector is no longer theengine of the development of rural areas, accounting for only the 12,3% inpredominantly rural areas and 4,6% in intermediate rural areas. Although these figuresshow that Spanish averages are still higher than EU25 ones (see Table 4) 2 , the EU-widetrend of a progressive decrease of the importance of the role of primary sector in ruralareas is confirmed in Spain. In addition, and in countertrend with the rest of the EU,secondary and tertiary GVA is increasing in rural areas, because economic activities areincreasingly relocated out of urban areas. For the industrial sector, for instance, this isalso related to the fact that rural areas are more and more endowed with adequateinfrastructure (transport, information and communication technologies), which increasesaccessibility and offers the opportunity to access to reduced production cost areas (alsobecause of lower salaries) 3 . The same happens for the tertiary sector: a growing numberof small-medium enterprises relocated in rural areas, especially related to tourism,leisure and health activities.The tertiary sector is also the one which underwent a more dynamic employment trend inthe period 2000-2004 and was, in general, the sector employing the most of labour forcein 2004 (65%).Table 3: Gross Domestic Product per capita in 2003 and change of GrossDomestic Product from 1996 to 2003 NUTS 3 rural regions (EU 27 = 100).PredominantlyruralIntermediateruralPredominantlyurbanES/EU25GDP/Capita 81 94 114 101EU 25 77 90 130 106Change of GDP/Capita 5 7 10 8EU 25 1 0 2 1(Source: Rural Development in the European Union - Statistical and Economic Information - Report2007)2 Partly because of the considerable weight of systems based on irrigation, early agricultural products anddelicacies.3 Industrial sectors which have seen a relocation in rural areas include agro-food industry, textile, furnitures,other industrial sectors supporting construction or other industrial branches.13