The “Regional Yearbook 2007” was published on 5 October. It provides a statistical review of the 268 European Regions in terms of their GDP, labour market, families, science, business, transport, tourism, education, agriculture and many other socio-economic sectors. Some significant data emerge from the publication: there are only fifteen regions (seven of which in the UK) in which the rate of female employment is higher than 70%: a similar number of regions are situated below the threshold of 40%. The fact that the bottom four regions in the list are all Italian is striking. Two Czech regions open and close the classification relating to the concentration of students as a percentage of total youth population: namely, the region of Prague (with 150 students for 100 residents aged between 20 and 24) and the region of Stredni Cechy (4 students for every 100 residents). The cities that offer the best employment prospects are (in order) Prague, Copenhagen and Dublin, while Leipzig (D), Aalborg (DK) and Braga (POR) offer the best guarantees in terms of ease in finding housing.The Regional Yearbook 2007 can be downloaded free of charge from the Eurostat website http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat.
