The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
Within countries, some cities and regions prosper while others decline, leaving gaps in income, jobs and services that persist for decades. Agglomeration, infrastructure, institutions and shocks such as mine closures or trade competition all shape where growth happens. This page sets out how regional disparities form and change, how they are measured, and what evidence serves the national and local authorities that seek to narrow them.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 3
Activity and hazards, for this page
Keyboard, with the map focused
Hold Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll to zoom
Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
Loading the latest NASA imagery.
Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.
For regional economic development, in GCRI's spatial-intelligence reading, the map opens on night lights, population density and true-colour imagery with true colour from NASA GIBS, framed on Africa; every other NASA layer, live feed and forecast waits in the layer list.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date; indicators, not assessments of any place; claim ceiling INTEGRATED.
Layers and dates
Regional economic development is the growth and transformation of economies at the level of regions and cities within a country. Agglomeration concentrates growth in leading places, local shocks persist, and connectivity and local institutions shape whether lagging regions can catch up.
The working screen behind this subject: its structure, terms and states. Names are placeholders and values illustrative.
Regional specialisation and place-based policy. The dossier below sets out how the risk develops, what is measured, where the data come from, how it is modelled and who decides.
Firms and skilled workers cluster where markets, suppliers and ideas are dense, raising productivity in leading cities and leaving others behind.
When a dominant employer or industry closes, job losses spread to local services and tax bases, and recovery can take a generation.
Roads, power, broadband and transport links determine whether lagging regions can reach markets and attract investment.
The capacity of local governments to plan, invest and deliver services affects whether national support turns into development.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Agglomeration economies | Productivity gains firms and workers get from locating near one another. |
| Lagging region | A region with persistently lower income or growth than the national average. |
| Place-based policy | A policy targeted at a specific geographic area, such as a region, city or district. |
Each indicator carries its unit, its cadence, the kind of source behind it and the evidence label a value would carry. No values are shown: a programme supplies them under its own authority.
| Indicator | Unit | Cadence | Source type | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GDP per capita by region | currency units | annual | Regional accounts | OFFICIAL |
| Regional unemployment rate | percent | quarterly | Labour force surveys | OFFICIAL |
| Night-time light intensity | radiance | monthly | Satellite night lights | OBSERVED |
| Access to markets | travel time to nearest city | per assessment | Accessibility analysis | MODELLED |
| Regional poverty rate | percent | per survey | Household surveys | ESTIMATED |
| Public investment per capita by region | currency units | annual | Budget data | OFFICIAL |
The topic as a computational graph: named sources feed the methods, an evidence review gates the outputs, and the decisions stay with the authorities that hold them.
Fig. 02Nodes carry their type, two metric rows and a state; connectors show what feeds what; dashed frames name the owners; the timeline is the cadence. Design of the pipeline, not a record of a run.
Named public datasets and institutional records, each with its licence class. Sources by agreement are used only under their terms and never republished.
| Source | What it gives | Licence class |
|---|---|---|
| OECD Regional Statistics | Regional economic, social and environmental data | Public, OECD terms |
| NASA Black Marble and VIIRS night lights | Night-time light as a proxy for activity | Open, NASA data policy |
| Global Data Lab subnational indicators | Subnational development indicators from surveys | Open, licence to check |
| Malaria Atlas Project accessibility maps | Travel time to cities | Open, CC BY 4.0 |
| National census and household surveys | Regional demographics and poverty | Licence per survey |
Economic Development prepares evidence. The decisions below are taken by the authorities named, under their own rules, and never by the platform.
| Who decides | The question | Evidence this page serves |
|---|---|---|
| Ministries of planning and regional development | Where to direct investment and support | Disparity profiles; policy evaluations |
| Local governments | Which local development strategies to pursue | Local shock and connectivity evidence |
| Infrastructure agencies | Which connections would open markets for lagging regions | Accessibility evidence |
Agglomeration economies explain much of spatial concentration: firms and workers are more productive when close to each other, sharing suppliers, labour pools and knowledge. This creates self-reinforcing growth in successful places and can leave others behind.
Regions specialised in a single industry are exposed to shocks to that industry. When a major employer closes or a sector declines, effects spread through local suppliers, services and public revenues. Research on regions affected by trade shocks has found that labour market effects can persist for many years, with lower employment and incomes.
Climate change adds new pressures. Coastal, agricultural and fossil-fuel-dependent regions face specific risks, and energy transitions create opportunities in some places and losses in others.
Regional accounts, employment and business registers. Regional data are often less timely and reliable than national data.
Decomposing regional change into national, sectoral and local components. Descriptive, not causal.
Assessing place-based policies using causal inference. Spillovers to neighbouring areas complicate estimates.
Simulating firm and household location using complex systems methods. Validation is difficult.
Regional results are sensitive to boundaries and scale; analyses state the geography used.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.