The new Eastern members, Central and Eastern Europe has been steadily catching up with the Western part of the Union, although at a rather slowish pace. The current depression has seroiusly hit some old and new member states, and less severely other ones, so the picture will be more varied at the end of this year. The next possible candidates, Iceland and Croatia are fitting well into the club.

It’s worth taking a look a the last available national income figures in the world before the current economic downturn. The world map below shows GDP per capita adjusted with purchasing power, in other words, the per capita purchasing ability of gross income in countries. Countries with similar shades have an identical income, in other [...]