Foreword

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 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.

The report is organised into four chapters plus statistical annexes. The Reader’s Guide provides a description of the way OECD subnational information has developed across a range of topics and different territorial levels, including administrative and economic regions. Chapter 1 offers, for the first time, a comprehensive picture of well-being outcomes across regions, countries, and over time. This assessment is based on a multi-dimensional framework covering 11 dimensions of well-being: income, jobs, housing, health, education, access to services, safety, environment, civic engagement and governance, life satisfaction, and community. A zoom in on how each OECD region performs on the various well-being dimensions is included with interactive graphs available at www.oecdregionalwellbeing.org. Chapter 2 illustrates the regional contribution to national growth, highlights factors driving the competitive edge of regions and shows how these factors are distributed within countries. It also provides comparative analysis of the economic competitiveness and labour market trends in the 281 OECD metropolitan areas. The analysis relies on a common definition of urban areas in OECD countries, consisting of densely populated cities and their less-populated surrounding territories linked to the cities by a high level of commuting to work. A new feature in this edition, the report offers insights on the challenges subnational governments perceive for infrastructure investment and documents how financial competencies are allocated across levels of governments. Recent trends in subnational government finances complete Chapter 3. Chapter 4 looks at regional disparities on social inclusion and environmental sustainability, providing new measures of quality of life in regions and demographic changes.

OECD Regions at a Glance 2016 was prepared by the Territorial Analysis and Statistics Unit of the OECD Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development. It has greatly benefited from comments and guidance from the Delegates of the OECD Working Party on Territorial Indicators (WPTI) and colleagues of the OECD Regional Development Policy Division. This report was supervised and edited by Monica Brezzi. Rolf Alter, Luiz De Mello and Joaquim Oliveira Martins are gratefully acknowledged for their comments on drafts of various chapters. Lead authors for each of the chapters were: Justine Boulant and Paolo Veneri (Chapter 1), Eric Gonnard and Daniel Sanchez-Serra (Chapter 2), Isabelle Chatry and Dorothée Allain-Dupré (Chapter 3), Eric Gonnard and Marcos Díaz Ramirez (Chapter 4). Karen Maguire and Johannes Weber prepared the indicators on regional innovation (Chapter 2). Eric Gonnard and Daniel Sanchez-Serra are gratefully acknowledged for providing extensive statistical support throughout the publication and preparing the maps. Gemma Nellies and Pilar Philip are kindly acknowledged for editing and preparing the report for publication. Damian Garnys and Kate Lancaster provided editorial assistance.