Regional unemployment rates varied widely across the EU in 2010, with the lowest rates recorded in the regions of Zeeland in the Netherlands and Bolzano/Bozen in Italy as well as Tirol and Salzburg in Austria, while the highest rates were registered in the French Overseas Department of Réunion and the regions of Canarias and Andalucía in Spain.

Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, published its data on regional unemployment, compiled on the basis of the EU Labour Force Survey. The data shows that the lowest rates recorded in the regions of Zeeland in the Netherlands and Bolzano/Bozen in Italy (both 2.7%) as well as Tirol (2.8%) and Salzburg (2.9%) in Austria, while the highest rates were registered in the French Overseas Department of Réunion (28.9%) and the regions of Canarias (28.7%) and Andalucía (28.0%) in Spain.

Among the regions, thirteen regions had a rate of 19.2% or higher, double that of the EU27: nine regions in Spain and the four French Overseas Departments. 32 had an unemployment rate of 4.8% or less in 2010, half the average for the EU27. They included eight regions in the Netherlands, eight out of nine regions in Austria, seven in Germany, three in Italy, two in Belgium, and one each in the Czech Republic, Romania and the United Kingdom as well as Luxembourg.

In 2010, the female unemployment rate ranged from 2.5% in Tirol in Austria to 31.9% in Melilla in Spain, while the male rate varied between 2.3% in Bolzano/Bozen in Italy and 29.2% in the Canarias in Spain. Unemployment rates for young people varied from 5.1% in Oberbayern to 60.2% in Ceuta.