Despite the European Union’s relatively low overall unemployment rate, long-term unemployment continues to pose a serious challenge across the bloc. More than four million EU citizens aged between 15 and 74 have been out of work for over a year, representing 1.9% of the labour force, according to Eurostat’s 2024 data.
The figures reveal deep regional inequalities: of 195 regions analysed, 89 have long-term unemployment rates above or equal to the EU average, while 106 fall below it.
The highest rates were recorded in southern and remote areas such as Spain’s autonomous regions of Ciudad de Melilla (16.3%) and Ciudad de Ceuta (15.8%), France’s overseas territories of Guadeloupe (11.4%) and La Réunion (8.2%), and Italy’s Campania (9.9%), Calabria (8.3%), and Sicily (8.0%).
Conversely, 52 regions reported rates below 1%, including areas in northern Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, northwestern Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, and Malta. The lowest rate, 0.4%, was observed in Prague, Central Bohemia, Utrecht, and North Brabant. Slovenia and Croatia recorded similar results, with Slovenia’s long-term unemployment ranging from 0.8% in the west to 1.5% in the east, and Croatia’s from 0.9% in Zagreb to 3.1% in the Pannonian region. In neighbouring Serbia, the rate stood at 1.7% in Belgrade and 6.5% in southern and eastern parts of the country.
