Given an unequal population growth - it is higher in the US - a further analysis shows that the gap in real GDP growth between the US and the euro area that opened up in the mid-1990s is half the size if measured in per capita terms.
The remainder is due to differences in productivity growth (the increase in overall labour productivity in the US, measured by real GDP per person employed, reached on average 1.9 p.c. in the last 10 years, almost twice as much as the 1 p.c. recorded in the euro area) and to a much lower level of labour utilisation in the euro area.