Regional unemployment rates varied widely across the EU25 in 2004, from 2.4 per cent in the region of Dorset and Somerset in the United Kingdom, to 32.8 per cent in Réunion in France. In the EU25 as a whole, unemployment was stable between 2003 and 2004, at 9.2 per cent. At regional level, rates rose in 57 per cent of the 254 NUTS 2 regions of the EU25.

Of the 254 regions, 44 had an unemployment rate of 4.6 per cent or less in 2004, i.e. half the average for the EU25. They included 21 regions in the United Kingdom, seven in Italy, six in Austria, five in the Netherlands, and one region each in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Hungary and Portugal.

At the other extreme, 21 regions had a rate of 18.4 per cent or higher, i.e. double that of the EU25: nine Polish regions, six in Germany, four in France (all Overseas Departments) and two in Slovakia.

The data on regional unemployment, compiled on the basis of the EU Labour Force Survey, are taken from a report published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

The unemployment rate among women is the lowest in United Kingdom regions.

Between 2003 and 2004, the overall unemployment rate for women in the EU25 was stable at 10.1 per cent. At regional level, female unemployment was lowest in 2004 in twelve regions of the United Kingdom, headed by Dorset and Somerset (2.2 per cent) and Hertfordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire and Devon (both 2.9 per cent). The female unemployment rate was highest in Réunion (34.2 per cent) and Guyane (29.8 per cent), both French Overseas Departments. The female unemployment rate was higher than the male rate in nearly two-thirds of the regions.

The unemployment rate among young people is the lowest in Dutch regions.

Regional differences in the unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24 are also very marked. In the EU25 in 2004, unemployment rates for young people ranged from 5.4 per cent in the region of Zeeland in the Netherlands, to 56.6 per cent in Réunion in France.

In 38 EU25 regions, eleven in the United Kingdom, nine each in Germany and the Netherlands, five in Austria, both regions in Ireland, one in Hungary and Denmark, the unemployment rate for young people was less than 10 per cent in 2004, while in 16 regions, nine in Poland, three in France (all Overseas Departments), two in Italy, and one each in Greece and Slovakia, the rate was over 40 per cent. In more than two-thirds of EU25 regions the unemployment rate for young people was at least twice that for total unemployment.

There were only eight regions where youth unemployment was less than or equal to total unemployment, all in Germany.