505 Economics | Monthly GDP Estimates at Local Level

(30 June 2021) According to 505 Economics, most sub-national regions of the United Kingdom — referred to as NUTS 2* regions — responded uniformly to the first lockdown in April 2020, with economies contracting by approximately 20%. A similar pattern could be seen at a more granular NUTS 3 level*. However, local economies (NUTS 3) do not appear to have returned to pre-COVID levels of economic growth.

As opposed to Eurostat or national statistics offices who provide national GDP estimated on a quarterly basis and subnational — on an annual basis, 505 Economics provides monthly estimates of GDP at a local level for 26 European countries. They use high-resolution satellite imagery and transform luminosity data into GDP estimates using machine learning.   

*NUTS or Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics is the European Union's geocode standard for referencing the subdivisions of countries for statistical purposes.