At the beginning of the 21st century, the convergence of the archipelago with the Spanish average was such that, in fact, the Canary Islands had the most similar GDP per capita to that of Spain as a whole. In 2000, the GDP per capita of the Canary Islands was 97.8% of the Spanish average. In 2021, the GDP per capita in the Canary Islands was 74.5% of the country's average, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics.
When in 2000 the GDP per capita of the islands was the most similar to the Spanish average, the Canary Islands ranked eighth in the country among the autonomous communities. It surpassed the Valencian Community, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Asturias, Murcia, Castilla-La Mancha, Galicia and Andalusia. From the year 2000, the deterioration was progressive until the acute phase of the pandemic. In 2020, the Canary Islands had been surpassed by all the aforementioned regions and was placed in last place.
In 2021, the growth of GDP in the Canary Islands, which was 7%, meant a slight increase in convergence with the national average to 74.5%, (in 2020 it had been 72.9%) which meant that the Canary Islands once again surpassed Andalusia, which remained that year at 74.1% of the Spanish average.
The data is marked by a period characterized by events of vital importance for the economy such as the real estate bubble, the financial crisis or the Covid 19 pandemic. Crises that were better weathered in the most industrialized regions and also in those less exposed to tourism, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Funcas, in 2020, the Canary Islands was the community that suffered the most intense drop in GDP after the Balearic Islands. The Canary Islands economy fell by 18.1%, due to the high weight of tourism in its economy and, especially, international tourism, only below the Balearic community.
Fortunately, this trend is reversed in 2021. During the first quarter of 2022, the Canary Islands economy grew by 12.2%, compared to the previous year, almost doubling the state average of 6.4%
As the coronavirus crisis subsided, the most touristy regions, particularly the Canary Islands, have experienced greater GDP growth in 2022. BBVA recently announced that in the Canary Islands, this increase could have been 10%, which could have improved the archipelago's position in GDP per capita last year, but we will have to wait for official data.
