OECD Regions at a Glance 2016
OECD Regions at a Glance shows how regions and cities contribute to national economic growth and well-being. This edition updates more than 40 region-by-region indicators to assess disparities within countries and their evolution over the past 15 years. The report covers all the OECD member countries and, where data are available, Brazil, People’s Republic of China, Colombia, India, Latvia, Lithuania, Peru, the Russian Federation and South Africa.
New to this edition:
- A comprehensive picture of well-being in the 391 OECD regions based on 11 aspects that shape people's lives: income, jobs, housing, education, health, environment, safety, civic engagement and governance, access to services, social connections, and life satisfaction.
- Recent trends in subnational government finances and indicators on how competencies are allocated and co-ordinated across levels of governments.
Household income in metropolitan areas
People living in metropolitan areas have higher income than those living outside metropolitan areas. According to the estimation of household disposable income in 18 OECD countries, based in most cases on tax records, the average income in metropolitan areas is on average 17% higher than elsewhere (Boulant et al., 2016). The income premium in metropolitan areas with respect to the national average is always positive, with the exceptions of Belgium, but it can differ significantly across countries (). Mexico is the country where the difference between income of metropolitan and non-metropolitan residents is the highest (68%), followed by Hungary (37%), Estonia (34%) and Chile (23%). It should be acknowledged, however, that relatively higher incomes do not necessarily imply a higher purchasing power available to metropolitan residents. In fact, differences in living costs between locations can offset partially earning differences across urban and rural places.