Wales Productivity Forum

Wales has a population of 3 million, concentrated in the areas of Swansea, Cardiff and Newport, the South Wales Valleys and the north-east corner. Wales has a strong industrial heritage, centred on coal, heavy manufacturing and industry with a shift towards service sectors, tourism and technology. Wales’ output per hour is 17.2% below the UK average and it has three of the 10 least productive parts of the UK, and none in the top 10.

Wales’ Productivity Challenge: Exploring the issues

Find out more about the historic context, key issues and future research priorities of productivity in Wales in our insights paper, which sits alongside an executive summary: a high-level overview highlighting its productivity picture, including a scattergraph showing the disparities on a NUTS3 level in comparison with the UK average, the primary drivers and bottlenecks, a SWOT analysis and a look to the future.

Insights Paper
Executive Summary

Productivity Scorecards

The Institute’s Productivity Lab has developed a scorecard series, based on ITL1 level, to compare productivity performance across UK regions and devolved nations. It comprises five main regional productivity drivers, captured using 17 indicators.

Download the scorecard

• Cymru translation for Welsh segment