Harju County was followed by Tartu and Ida-Viru Counties, which accounted for 11% and 6% of Estonian gross domestic product (GDP), respectively. Hiiu and Põlva counties had the lowest shares, as each contributed less than one percent of Estonian GDP.
According to Robert Müürsepp, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, the service sector made up 72 percent of the Estonian economy last year. “The share of services is often used to assess the maturity of the economy. In Estonia the share of services has grown steadily and is now the highest ever recorded for this sector in Estonia,” said Müürsepp.
The cities of Tallinn and Tartu were the main contributors to the service sector, and as a result, services accounted for 80 percent of value added in Harju County and 72 percent in Tartu County. The proportion of services was lowest in Ida-Viru (41 percent) and Lääne-Viru (42 percent) counties.
Industry and construction accounted for a quarter of the Estonian economy in 2019, a decrease of 2 percentage points compared to the previous year. The decrease was due to the increasing share of services as well as a good year in agriculture, which led to a significant increase in the share of the agricultural sector in the Estonian economy.
The industrial share was the largest in Ida-Viru County (58 percent), mainly due to the energy sector. The Lääne-Viru district also has a 47 percent share in the industrial sector. The share of industry and construction was lowest in Harju (20 percent), Põlva (24 percent) and Tartu (25 percent) counties. In Harju and Tartu counties this can be explained by the large proportion of the service sector, while agriculture in Põlva county made an important contribution.
The share of agriculture in gross value added was 3 percent. The agricultural sector had the largest share in Viljandi Counties (18 percent) and Jõgeva (18 percent) and the lowest share in Harju County (0.5 percent).
In 2019, GDP per capita was EUR 21,186, EUR 1,566 more than in the previous year. GDP per capita was the largest in Harju County, where it was 43 percentage points above the Estonian average. Harju County was followed by Tartu and Saare Counties, where GDP per capita was 91% and 67% of the Estonian average, respectively. The lowest GDP per capita was recorded in Põlva County at 39 percent of the Estonian average.
Every year the differences between the counties decrease. Over the past four years, Hiiu, Järva, Rapla and Tartu counties have made the fastest progress towards the Estonian average. The narrowing gap between Harju County and the Estonian average shows that the rest of Estonia is also approaching Harju County.
More information is available on the Statistics Estonia website.
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